GOVERNMENT CONCENTRATES House committee votes guayule R&D bill The House Agriculture Committee on a 24 to 3 vote has approved a bill authorizing a new federal R&D program aimed at commercializing native latex rubber (guayule), moving it much closer to enactment. Research authorizations under the bill would begin at $5 million in fiscal 1980 and rise to $10 million in 1981 and $20 million in 1982 and 1983. The bill, in identical form, already has won the approval of the House Committee on Science & Technology and a similar measure has been passed by the Senate.
NRC inspections need improvement The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should be changed to provide for "a more thorough and independent evaluation of the quality of | nuclear | powerplant construction work," Congress' General Accounting Office concluded in a report earlier this month. GAO says its investigators found that NRC inspectors do little independent testing of construction work and rely instead on efforts of utility company employees; spend little time observing actual construction work; and routinely don't talk with construction workers who perform the work on the plants. NRC says that it has been reviewing its inspection practices for two years and has paid particular attention to many of the points raised by GAO.
EPA asks stiff power plant controls EPA administrator Douglas M. Costle last week announced tough new proposals to limit sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. The proposed regulation would require an 8 5 % reduction in potential sulfur dioxide emissions from the more than 200 new fossil fuel-fired power plants to be constructed in the U.S. by 1990. The 8 5 % reduction would be required no matter what the sulfur level in the coal being burned. This means most of the plants would have to install stack-cleaning devices called scrubbers, at an EPA-estimated cost of $10 billion. The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal and EPA says it will consider less-costly alternatives.
TSCA data take shape EPA is moving along toward early 1979 publication of the initial inventory of commercial chemicals being compiled as a first step in implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act. Last week in Miami Beach at the 176th meeting of the American Chemical Society, the reporting status as of Aug. 1 was outlined by Ronald G. Dunn of Chemical Abstracts Service, which is compiling the inventory under contract to EPA. So far, forms have been received from 6841 reporting sites (compared* to an original EPA estimate that there would be 8000). Reporting forms have totaled 50,114 (compared to EPA's estimate of 83,000). There have been about 117,000 chemical substances reported (compared to EPA's worst-case estimate of 300,000) before merging- elimination of duplicate substances from the reporting sites. No data have yet been com14
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piled for the number of unique chemicals (EPA's original estimate is 50,000). Of the forms received, 40,816 have been Form C reports - those substances for which CAS registry numbers are not known or which are claimed to be confidential. Confidentiality was claimed for 1875 substances.
Franklin to quit CPSC in February The Consumer Product Safety Commissions lone Republican member, Barbara H. Franklin, has announced her resignation effective Feb. 16, 1979. Franklin, who has been on the commission since its inception in May 1973, says she is giving early notice to provide ample opportunity for the nomination and confirmation of her successor. In her resignation letter to President Carter, Franklin strongly urged him to "consider regional public forums sponsored by the White House to address the cancer issue, one of the nation's most pressing safety and health problems."
CEQ asks full disclosure of industry data The White House Council on Environmental Quality is looking for public comment on its recommendations for handling of industry trade secrets and confidential data by federal agencies. A major recommendation, sure to send shivers through chemical and pharmaceutical companies, "is for full public disclosure of all health, safety, and efficacy data which the federal government has the authority to require private industry to submit." CEQ wants to hear from interested parties by Oct. 15.
New court proposed for technical cases A plan to merge the U.S. Court of Claims and U.S. Court of Customs & Patent Appeals was proposed last week by the Justice Department as a means to help bring some degree of uniformity to rulings in highly technical areas such as tax, patent, and environmental law. The plan would also add three judges, expanding the size of the new judicial panel to 15. Disclosed in a speech to a Federal Bar Association meeting in Washington, D.C., by assistant Attorney General Daniel Meador, the proposal stops short of establishing a national appeals court, an idea that has traditionally met with resistance in Congress.
Washington roundup • In October, Dr. Raymond Bowers, a physicist and currently director of Cornell University's program for science, technology, and society, will take up his new post as an Office of Technology Assessment's assistant director and its chief scientist. • A Federal Aviation Administration investigation has cleared toluene of charges that the chemical, used in low-lead aviation fuels, might soften some plastic components of an aircraft's fuel system, allowing the plastic to become lodged in critical parts. • NCI has found that 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent, when given in drinking water for periods of 90 and 110 weeks causes cancer in both sexes of rats and mice.
