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The article presents an interview with climate scientist Ben Santer. He comments on the controversy regarding global warming. He discloses the reasons for the lack of consistency between the models and data collected from satellites. He expresses his opinion whether the Climate Change Science Program report of U.S. President George W. Bush will change environmental policy.

This article discusses environmental regulations promulgated by U.S. President George W. Bush during the last months of his term in 2008 and 2009. Political debates regarding the propriety of changes to environmental regulations such as the Clean Air Act and the regulation of mountaintop removal coal mining are assessed. The authors describe the increasing incidence of non-concurrence memos, where staff members at agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency express their disagreement with proposed regulations. The efforts of the Bush administration to ensure that these regulations were in force by the time that U.S. President Barack Obama took office are explained.

The article reports that the U.S. President George W. Bush Administration's campaign for regulatory reform has taken aim at guidance documents that tell businesses and citizens how to implement environmental regulations. The Executive Order 13422 commands agencies to submit significant guidance documents for review by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The executive order, together with OMB's Final Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices, boost the government's control over a wide range of regulatory activities.

The article reports that U.S. President George W. Bush has suggested a $7.3 billion budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for fiscal year 2007. This represents a 4 percent reduction compared to its current funding. However, the president has requested Congress to provide $55 million more for EPA's homeland security initiatives and has shifted funding to expand research in nanotechnology and computational toxicology. However, funding for the agency's Office of Research and Development will be reduced slightly.

The article reports that U.S. President George W. Bush's $23.6 billion budget for the Dept. of Energy for fiscal year 2007 will increase funding for nuclear, biofuels, solar, and hydrogen-fuel research efforts while totally eliminating funding for geothermal, hydropower, petroleum, and oil and natural gas research and reducing spending on clean coal technologies. However, an administration priority, FutureGen, which is an emissions-free coal-fired electricity plant, will benefit from a 200 percent increase in funding.

The article reports that a number of environmental programs would either be cut back or canceled under U.S. President George W. Bush's proposal for the fiscal year 2007 budget. Research funds for geothermal, hydropower, and oil and natural gas research at the Dept. of Energy will be stopped, while funding for groundwater and other water resources would be substantially reduced at the U.S. Geological Survey. Funding for climate change, atmospheric research, and ecosystems would also be decreased. Bush has suggested increases in programs that directly support his top research and development priorities of homeland security and defense.

Reports on U.S. President George Bush's signing of a law that could double the total National Science Foundation (NSF) budget through 2008. Designated priority areas such as ecology and pesticide reduction; Criticism of the Bush administration in 2002 over a plan to double the budget of the National Institutes of Health; Identification of plant genome projects as a funding priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]