Paving the Way to Space-Based Gravitational-Wave Detectors

The announcement in February 2016 that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) had detected gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes stunned and electrified much of the physics and astronomy communities [1]. However, while all eyes were turned toward LIGO, the LISA Pathfinder (LPF)—a technology demonstration mission for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) gravitational-wave detector [2]—was quietly but convincingly paving the way toward the next revolution in gravitational-wave astronomy more than 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth. After a six-month program that began with the launch of the spacecraft in early December 2015, the team behind LPF has now announced the first results from the mission [3]. Following a 50-day journey to Lagrange Point 1 of the Sun-Earth system, LPF settled into orbit to begin a series of spacecraft acceptance tests and an observing campaign to measure the limits with which two test masses can achieve free fall

BiofuelsSnake Oil for the Twenty-First Century

Congress should slash its subsidies for corn-based ethanol and focus its efforts on research and development efforts to advance the technologies needed to reduce our need for foreign petroleum. We should be working to lower the costs of cellulosic ethanol production as well as working on promising alternative transportation energy sources including plug-in electric vehicles powered by electricity from wind or solar technologies. Energy derived from microbial energy conversion is another promising technology for the longer term that deserves more research and development effort.460 Second, if we are to use ethanol, barriers to its importation of ethanol should be abolished in order to enhance the nations fuel diversity, although policies concerning ethanol from all sources need to give serious scrutiny to its impact on the environment and food prices. Third, the government should not be working to build an ethanol infrastructure whose economic viability depends on government subsidies. We do not need another economic meltdown because massive amounts of capital were used to develop an industry that is not sustainable. Fourth, the EPA, DOE, DOT, and other relevant executive agencies should be tasked with developing a national fuel policy using a process that is open and transparent. This would include measures to reduce the distortion of the economic system caused by subsidies to the energy industry that would help place the alternative energy industry on a level playing field. A renewable fuels program should be an important part of a national energy policy, but it must be sustainable, and it should not be based on long-term government subsidies

Dealing with Climate Change Under the National Environmental Policy Act

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was an important environmental law for several decades before climate change became an issue of concern. Beginning in the 1990s efforts began to include in NEPA’s environmental assessments and environmental impact statements both the impact of federal government actions on climate change and the impact of climate change on proposed federal actions. These efforts were encouraged by the Council on Environmental Quality. However, implementation at the agency level has been uneven. Some Federal agencies have resisted making serious efforts to incorporate climate change impacts into their decision-making process. Moreover, the courts have not been consistent in their reviews of agency compliance with NEPA, and the judiciary often give substantial deference to an agency’s minimal NEPA compliance. Since 2017, determining NEPA’s requirements for climate change analysis has become more challenging because the Trump Administration is changing federal environmental policies and regulations in order to encourage fossil fuel energy development and use, which will increase the emissions of greenhouse gases