Policy Concentrates
2017 funding facts
RESEARCH FUNDING
Science buoyed in 2017 U.S. spending legislation Facing possible cuts, research agencies instead see growth Congress approved a bipartisan 2017 spending bill on May 4 that shows support for science, including many agencies that fund chemistry research and regulation. The legislation’s flat funding for many agencies feels like a win for research, in part because the situation for science has sounded dire in the months since President Donald J. Trump took office. The bill (H.R. 244) includes a $2 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health—a 6.2% boost over 2016 to $34.1 billion in 2017—and none of the other cuts Trump suggested. Just weeks ago, Trump proposed massive cuts to science for the current fiscal year, including a $2 billion cut for NIH. And his preliminary fiscal 2018 proposal would slash funding for research and for the Environmental Protection Agency and completely eliminate the Chemical Safety & Hazard
Investigation Board (CSB) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Congress needed to pass a fiscal 2017 appropriations bill last week to avert a government shutdown after almost seven months of stopgap measures to keep the government running. “We commend Congress and the White House for working together to prevent a government shutdown and finalizing appropriations for fiscal 2017,” says Rush Holt, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among other agencies that support chemistry, Department of Energy Office of Science funding would go up slightly. ARPA-E would receive a boost to $306 million, up 5.2% from fiscal 2016. The National Science Foundation’s funding would remain flat from 2016. And the National Institute of Standards & Technology’s support would go down 1.0%, primar-
Despite worries, most research agencies fared well in a final fiscal 2017 spending bill approved last week. Congress had to pass the legislation by May 5 to prevent a government shutdown. National Institutes of Health Department of Energy Ofce of Science National Science Foundation National Institute of Standards & Technology -2
0 2 4 6 % change from 2016
Source: Proposed Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017
ily through a $10 million cut to a fund that supports upgrades to its aging facilities. The Department of Agriculture’s primary competitive research grants program would get $375 million, an increase of $25 million. EPA would see a slight cut of 1.0% to $8.1 billion. That includes an additional $7.5 million to clean up Superfund sites. CSB’s funding would stay flat at $11 million. Agencies will have five months before the 2018 fiscal year begins in October 2017. Trump has said he will fight for funding for a Mexican border wall then, which could mean another shutdown threat.—ANDREA
WIDENER
INDUSTRIAL SAFETY
Blast at ExxonMobil refinery due to gaps in risk management, CSB report says Fundamental process safety management problems—some common to all U.S. refineries—led to a 2015 accident at an ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, Calif., says a May 3 report from the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board. ExxonMobil’s lack of proper protocol to manage risk meant “workers were essentially running the unit blind,” says CSB Chair Vanessa Allen Sutherland. The accident injured four workers, none seriously. The explosion sent debris flying, with some landing near tanks of hydrofluoric acid (HF). Many refineries use this highly toxic chemical in the alkylation process. The explosion occurred in the electrostatic precipitator, part of the refinery’s air pollution control system. Undetected hydrocarbons back-flowed through piping from the fluid catalytic cracking unit and ig-
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MAY 8, 2017
nited in the precipitator, CSB determined. At the time of the incident, the cracking unit was shut down for planned maintenance but was not sufficiently isolated from the rest of the facility, the report says. The refinery lacked hydrocarbon detection equipment that might have flagged the leak, CSB says. The absence of such equip-
CSB says hydrocarbon leakage and inadequate process safety management led to a blast at this California refinery.
ment is an industry-wide problem, it adds. The accident shut down the refinery and cut output for more than a year. It also heightened fears of some 150,000 nearby residents. About one-third of the 150-some refineries in the U.S. use HF. It can seriously injure or kill even in small concentrations. CSB is also investigating the potential impact if debris had hit the HF storage tanks. However, ExxonMobil, which recently sold the refinery to BPF Holdings, has withheld the information CSB asked for, saying this aspect of the probe exceeds the board’s authority. The company tells C&EN there is no evidence the incident posed any risk to the community. After this incident and four others since the 2015 accident, regional regulators in California launched a study to consider substitutes for HF at refineries. They aim to release their findings by the end of the year.—JEFF JOHNSON, special to C&EN
CREDIT: CSB
Company lacked adequate process safety
