Beijing, China, is the site of an energy efficiency center jointly sponsored by the United States and China to promote sustainable development and U.S. green technologies. The Beijing center will provide policy advice to Chinese agencies, support business development, run public information and technical training programs, and design mechanisms for financing projects. Operating funds for the next four years come from DOE, EPA, and the World Wildlife Fund. After that, the center is to become self-supporting. Other centers launched by the U.S. government and nonprofit organizations in partnership with foreign countries are in Moscow, Warsaw, Sofia (Bulgaria), and Prague. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) called for industry to improve its environmental reporting and to encourage more companies worldwide to report. The message came during a December meeting at UNEP's Paris-based Industry and Environment Programme Activity Centre. Maria Bober, chair of the working group on environment reporting, said, "The reports are only the tip of the iceberg. The majority of the companies are below the surface." Added Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel, director of the Activity Centre, "Industrializing-country companies are facing increasing demands from their consumers to demonstrate their environmental performance."
FEDERAL Two executive orders signed by President Clinton on Nov. 23 "reinvent" the way the federal government crafts science and technology policy. Following a recommendation from Vice-President Gore's task force on government operations, Clinton established the cabinet-level National Sciences and Technology Council (NSTC) to coordinate federal science, space, and technology policies. At the same time, Clinton reestablished the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) as a private-sector advisory group to the president and NSTC. The new committee consolidates and, in the White House's view, elevates the functions now carried out by interagency councils, including the Federal Coordinating Council
OSTP head John Gibbons and AI Gore watch as Clinton reinvents federal science and technology policy making. for Science, Engineering, and Technology; the National Space Council; and the National Critical Materials Council. Clinton said that NSTC will "establish clear national goals for federal science and technology investments." The NSTC first will undertake an "across-the-board review of federal spending on research and development." The president will chair the council, which will include nearly all cabinet secretaries and agency heads; the vice-president; the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP); advisers on domestic, economic, and environmental issues as well as national security; and the director of the Office of Management and Budget. PCAST will consist of up to 15 "distinguished individuals" appointed by the president from industry, academia, research institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and state and local governments. OSTP head John Gibbons and an as-yet-unnamed individual from the private sector will chair PCAST. EPA's program to control air pollution with reformulated vehicle fuels continues to battle comlaints. In December, EPA acnowledged that a new blend of diesel fuel designed to cut sulfur emissions may be responsible for fuel pump leaks in some trucks. The leaks were found near fuel pump O-rings, primarily in older trucks with more than 300,000 miles on the odometer. A trucking
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association official speculates that the drop in aromatics concentration and the lower density of the new fuels may be causing the problem. Also in December, Richard Wilson, director of EPA's Office of Mobile Sources, declared that a federal study of the wintertime oxygenated additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) found that it was not more hazardous to health than the other components of gasoline. Last winter, Alaska stopped using fuel with MTBE because residents complained of nausea, headaches, and dizziness. Congress has granted Alaska a waiver from the program for this winter as well. Despite the problems with the fuel program, EPA issued in December a final rule on the reformulated gasoline and proposed a second rule on fuels that could be a big boost to farmers. Agency director Carol Browner said, "The reformulated fuel program is one of the most effective ways to reduce ozone emissions, and it is the first program to directly address toxic emissions from motor vehicles." The proposed rule would ensure that 30% of the "oxygen" in reformulated fuels would come from renewable oxygenates, primarily ethanol and ethyl tertiary butyl ether. This would open a new market for corn growers and others who produce feedstock for ethanol. The Agency expects to finalize this new rule by June. Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 28, No. 2, 1994 57 A
A Congressional report has charged that the Department of Defense (DOD) is paying contrac tors to clean up their sites as a normal part of doing business re gardless of negligence by the con tractor. A report released by the House Government Operations Committee on Dec. 1 found that DOD was paying up to $3 billion of contractors' environmental cleanup costs. An amendment to DOD's authorization bill, which was signed by President Clinton, requires that the department de tail to Congress environmental cleanup costs paid to contractors. The committee is looking at addi tional actions that would allow the government to recover envi ronmental costs and new ways for contractors to report cleanup costs. Senators gave EPA's implementa tion of the Clean Air Act to date a grade of "B minus." At a Nov. 15 press conference, Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) criticized the agency for delays in issuing rules. The Senators gave EPA a "D" on de fining source categories for the 189 chemicals listed in die act for which maximum control technol ogy will be applied. So far, only rules for emissions from dry cleaners and coke ovens have been issued. On the other hand, EPA earned high praise for pro grams that cut acid rain-produc ing sulfur dioxide emissions by market incentives and for phasing out ozone-depleting CFCs and halons. EPA has announced the forma tion of a national advisory coun cil on environmental justice. EPA expects the 25-member council to meet twice a year and to focus on creating partnerships and increas ing communication among gov ernment, business, and academia. The White House has promised an executive order on environ mental justice to cover the entire federal government early this year. Bowing to pressure, EPA has moved back the production phase-out deadline for the widely used pesticide methyl bromide by one year to Jan. 1, 2001. The deci sion also allows for continued importation of the fumigant. How ever, following agreements in the Montreal Protocol for controlling ozone-depleting substances such 58 A
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as methyl bromide, production levels of this halocarbon have been frozen at 1Θ91 levels. Retired engineers and scientists are being sought by the nonprofit Environmental Careers Organiza tion (ECO) to work with local nonprofit organizations on pollu tion prevention projects. ECO places retired professionals with community groups in need of technical expertise to interpret toxic release inventory and other technical data, to perform nonregulatory facility evaluations, to identify opportunities for toxics use reduction, and to help inter act with companies. Technical advisers work an average of 20 hours per week on six-month projects and are paid a modest stipend. Applications received in February will fill program slots beginning in April. For more in formation, contact Diane Mailey, 617-426-4375, ext. 132.
STATES
potential health risks from toxic releases in primarily poor and minority neighborhoods near an industrial area along Chattanooga Creek in Tennessee and Georgia. The report was written by John Stockwell, a Public Health Ser vice medical doctor on leave to EPA. Stockwell mapped toxic re lease inventory data using EPA's Geographical Information System and applied methodology he de veloped to predict what diseases might occur as a result of these toxic emissions. His analysis raised environmental justice is sues and led him to recommend long-term health monitoring in the affected neighborhoods. How ever, following peer and internal review, EPA removed the healthrelated data and environmental justice discussions. Local citizen's groups and Sen. James Sasser (D-TN) forced EPA to release Stockwell's original report along with the Agency's modified docu ment. EPA argues that its role is not to recommend health studies and, moreover, the Agency did not want to unduly alarm citizens in the Chattanooga Creek area.
AWARDS
Auto makers offered Northeast ern states a carrot if they would back off from adopting stringent California standards for car sales in their states. On December 6, Ford, Chrysler, and GM offered to introduce low-emission vehicles in 2001, three years earlier than scheduled under the Clean Air Act. The offer was part of ongoing discussions between the affected states, EPA, and auto makers. Un der California rules, low-emission vehicles will have a hydrocarbon emission standard of 0.09 g per mile, whereas the auto makers' proposed standard for this cate gory is 0.125 g per mile. Califor nia standards also require ultralow- and zero-emission cars. Pressure from local citizens and Congress has forced EPA to re lease a controversial report citing
James G. Anderson of Harvard University was one of seven prominent researchers to be awarded the Department of Ener gy's 1993 E. O. Lawrence Award. Anderson has been a leader in measuring in situ species in volved in stratospheric ozone de pletion. His results have been key in elucidating the mechanisms and the involvement of CFCs in the catalytic destruction of ozone.
SCIENCE
Tropical regions may have a tough time recovering from the effects of a major oil spill, accord ing to a research report from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Researchers from the institute have monitored the ef-
