|
Highlights -
Department of Energy (DOE). Natural gas
and petroleum research as well as geothermal research are slated for elimination
in the President’s request. Geoscience research within the Basic Energy Sciences
account would increase. - U.S. Geological
Survey (USGS). The President has requested
a 2 percent cut for the agency. Similar to the President’s last two requests,
the minerals program is poised to take a major cut. Funding for geology and water
programs overall would be cut. -
National Science Foundation (NSF). The
Geoscience Directorate is funded at a 6 percent increase over FY 2006. The Major
Research Equipment and Facilities Construction account includes $27.4 million
for the final installment of the EarthScope initiative. - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA). The Earth Systematic Missions program is slated for a slight increase
to total $5.3 billion, which includes funds to prepare for the new Landsat satellite. Introduction The
Earth sciences cover a broad range of the R&D spectrum, running the gamut
from fundamental research into the internal processes of Earth’s interior to highly
applied, interdisciplinary investigations that address environmental contamination,
natural hazards, and sustainable resource development. Although this chapter focuses
on Earth science programs in four key departments and agencies, Earth science
activities can be found in 16 other departments and agencies spanning nearly 300
separate programs. Table 1: Budget request for
principal agencies and programs supporting earth-science R&D (budget authority
in millions of dollars). 
Agency
/ Program FY 2005 FY 2006 FY 2007 % Change
Enacted Enacted Request FY 06-07 Department
of Energy -
Basic Energy Sciences Chemical Sciences, Geosciences
and Energy Biosciences 232
222 268 +21% -
Fossil Energy R&D
Natural Gas Research 44
33 -- -100%
Petroleum Research 33
32 -- -100% -
Renewable Energy Geothermal
25 23 -- -100% -
Yucca Mountain
Site Characterization
Core science
-- -- --
-- Department
of the Interior
- U.S.
Geological Survey* 936 971 945
-2%
Geologic Division* 229
235 217 -8%
Water Resources Div.* 211
212 204 -3% NASA
-
The Earth-Sun System 2,306 2,134 2,211 +2% National
Science Foundation
- Geosciences Directorate
697 703 745 +6%
Earth Sciences Division 137 140 152 +9%
-
Major Research Equip. EarthScope 47
50 27 -45% Source:
Agency budget materials, Office of Management and Budget.
* - Includes non-R&D components. Taken
as a whole, the President’s budget favors fundamental Earth science research programs
over more applied R&D. The success of the EarthScope initiative at NSF—the
first-ever Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction project for the
Earth sciences—contrasts with stagnant or decreasing support in the President’s
request for applied programs, with the hardest hit being those related to oil
and natural gas technologies and geothermal energy in the Department of Energy
(DOE) and mineral resources at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The
need for research and development in support of natural hazards and man-made hazards
planning and mitigation has not translated into significant increased support
for relevant Earth science programs. Although the USGS water-quality monitoring,
seismic monitoring, geospatial information and hazard-related capabilities are
in heavy demand, there are only small increases associated with this theme in
the USGS request while classic programs, such as the National Earthquake Hazards
Reduction Program (NEHRP), remain underfunded in the multiple federal agencies
that are authorized to carry out missions in these interagency programs. Department of
Energy (DOE) Fossil
Energy R&D: Historically, a
majority of the Earth science research funded through the Office of Fossil Energy
is related to petroleum and natural gas exploration and production. This year’s
request would again zero out the natural gas technologies and the petroleum/oil
technologies programs that previously supported fundamental research and future
innovations in oil and natural gas exploration, drilling, and production, which
are traditionally longer-term projects than those funded by private industry.
Remaining within the Fossil Energy R&D are programs associated with the President’s
Coal Research Initiative that would receive $280.7 million, a decrease of 10.6
percent from the FY 2006 level. Most of this funding would go to support research
for the FutureGen project, a program to investigate the co-production of hydrogen
and electricity from coal, such as technologies for Integrated Gasification Combined
Cycle power plants and greater understanding of chemical and physical properties
of fossil fuels. There is $74 million for carbon sequestration research, which
is 11.5 percent higher than the FY 2006 appropriations. Basic
Energy Sciences: To align budget
accounts with the Basic Energy Sciences working structure, DOE has placed Earth
science research within the combined Chemical Science, Geosciences, and Energy
Biosciences Research program. This program provides peer-reviewed grants to universities
and DOE national laboratories for fundamental Earth science research in geochemistry,
hydrology, rock mechanics, and geophysical imaging—areas with broad application
to multiple DOE mission areas including oil and gas exploration and development,
geothermal energy, and environmental remediation. The FY 2007 request for this
program is $268 million, which includes $22 million for long-term basic research
in geochemistry and geophysics. The program would see an increase of about $48
million, though most of this increase would be devoted to hydrogen and other alternative
fuel technologies and nanotechnology. Geothermal: The geothermal research program within the Renewable Energy
account funds Earth science research in materials, geofluids, geochemistry, geophysics,
rock properties, reservoir modeling, and seismic mapping. The budget request would
eliminate the DOE Geothermal Technology programs. A major aim of the program is
to work with industry to establish geothermal energy as an economical energy source.
Provisions in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, however, provide tax incentives to
encourage the development of new geothermal power plants. Yucca Mountain Site Characterization: Yucca Mountain was approved for development in
2002 and DOE had to delay their request for a site license for construction in
2004. Submission of a license application was delayed for several reasons, however.
Two primary and persistent problems are a court ruling that invalidates the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) compliance period for waste disposal, and underfunding
of the Yucca Mountain project by about $1 billion over
the past 10 years. Spending in FY 2007 will focus on defending the department’s
license application at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, improving decaying site
infrastructure, planning facilities for the receipt of spent waste and developing
a transportation infrastructure for spent waste. Overall, the Yucca Mountain project would receive an increase
of 10 percent from $495 million last year to $545 million. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) The
President’s total request for the USGS is $945 million, a decrease of 2 percent
from last year’s $971 million. Four projects highlighted in the budget request
include a new Integrated Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project, the National Streamflow
Information Program, the Energy Resources Program, and some new funding to begin
development of the Landsat 8 ground system. Geologic
programs would receive a total of $217 million, an 8 percent decrease from last
year. The Mineral Resources Program, which is the sole federal provider of scientific
information for objective mineral resource assessments and unbiased research results
on mineral potential, production, consumption, and environmental effects, is again
slated for a major cut for an overall budget of $31 million, a 38 percent decrease
compared to last year. This reduction would terminate or reduce research on industrial
minerals, research on inorganic toxins, materials flow analyses, the Mineral Resources
External Research program and the internationally coordinated global mineral resource
assessment. Additionally, this cut would eliminate more than 200 full-time positions
within the USGS at facilities in Reston, Reno, Tucson, Denver
and Menlo Park, among others. The program will focus on funding for
minerals surveys and studies relevant to ongoing federal land management, regulatory,
and remediation activities. Overall,
water programs would receive $204 million, a 4 percent decrease from last year’s
allocation. A majority of this decrease is related to the proposed elimination
of the 54 State Water Resources Research Institutes. The President requested $63
million for the National Water-Quality Assessment program, which is almost a $1.5
million increase from last year’s funding level. The budget request does include
a $2.3 million increase for streamgaging activities, which will help increase
the number of streamgages reporting in real-time by 30 and allow for continuous
operations at high priority sites. The water programs will also receive $200,000
for the National Streamflow Information program to support the multi-hazards demonstration
project. (For more on USGS, see Chapter 13.) National Science
Foundation (NSF) Funding
for the Geoscience Directorate (GEO) would receive a 6 percent boost from the
FY 2006 appropriation, with a budget request of $744.9 million. The majority of
the solid Earth science research within GEO is funded through the Earth Science
Division (EAR) that has requested $152.3 million. The EAR request increase is
in part to support research affiliated with the EarthScope facility and for improving
cyber-infrastructure. The
EarthScope initiative—comprised of the U.S. Seismic Array (USArray), the San Andreas
Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD), and the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO)—is
again included in the NSF’s Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction
(MREFC) account, having received $50 million in funding for FY 2006. This year’s
request is $27.4 for the final phase of implementing EarthScope. Future funding
for EarthScope is projected to come primarily from the Geoscience Directorate
after FY 2007. (For more on the NSF budget, see Chapter 7.) National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) Internal reorganization at NASA
has left three major accounts—Science,
Aeronautics and Exploration (SAE); Exploration Capabilities; and Inspector General—unchanged. However, within the SAE account,
NASA has eliminated the Space Science, Earth Science and Biological & Physical
Research Enterprises and combined them into one Science account. Within this new
Science “Mission Directorate” are three divisions: Solar System Exploration, The
Universe, and The Earth-Sun System, which houses the agency’s Earth science programs.
The Earth-Sun System will develop a scientific understanding of Earth and its
response to natural and human-induced changes through major missions including
the National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). The Administration requests a slight
increase for a total budget of $5.3 billion for the Science Mission Directorate,
of which $2 billion would be devoted to the Earth-Sun System. One of the largest
increases in Earth science programs at NASA is in the Earth Systematic Missions
program that supports several of the Earth orbiting satellites that collect and
observe regional and global changes in climate and surface data. The budget request
includes a $71 million increase for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission’s transition
from formulation to development beginning in March 2007. This mission will develop
an independent spacecraft to collect the required land surface data and deliver
its data to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). (For more on the NASA
budget, see Chapter 10.) | 
