ROLE OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY INFRASTRUCTURE Ms. STABENOW. Do you see a role for the Federal Government in that, or do you see that being an industry response at this point in terms of infrastructure? Do you have plans for any kinds of partnerships? Mr. BACHULA. At the outset, I think there's clearly a role for us as just a facilitator, getting the guys who make the cars and the guys who make the fuel together to talk about what the possibilities are. And there probably are some kinds of advanced research activities going on in the Department of Energy with fossil fuels and alternatives. Fuels that you can make from natural gas, for example. That may be very, very relevant to this. But some of these cars, some of these ideas, are very advanced. They will probably use a different kind of fuel. We have switched fuels before in this country. We have taken the lead out of gasoline, for example, and there's a process where you have to have some pumps that have one fuel in and some pumps that have another. But it is quite possible to do that if we can sort of get our act together. And that's part of what this effort is all about. Dr. MONIZ. If I may just add, very, very briefly, that we have a broad portfolio of activities. Gary mentioned the Fuels Program. I would just mention two other things. One is research along the lines of using new technologies which use the existing infrastructure, like gasoline-powered fuel cells. Another is our Clean Cities Programs, which is precisely aimed at developing the infrastructure. We'd be very happy to brief you on that, if you'd like. Chairman SENSENBRENNER. The gentlewoman's time has expired, and everybody's time has expired, except over on the floor where there are about 2 minutes left. So I'd like to thank both witnesses and members for a very productive and informative discussion today. Time does fly when we're having fun. We're going to be back at it after the recess. The Committee is adjourned. [Whereupon, at 11:54 a.m., the Committee was adjourned, to reconvene at the call of the Chair.] COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Hearing on The Road from Kyoto—Part 2: Kyoto and the Administration's Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Request Thursday, February 12, 1998 Post-Hearing Questions The Honorable John H. Gibbons Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy Post-Hearing Questions Submitted by Chairman Sensenbrenner "Clear and Compelling Evidence" That Human Activities Are Causing Climate Change Q1. You state on page 2 of your testimony that "the scientific evidence that climate change is occurring, and that human activities are playing a significant role in causing such change, is clear and compelling." However, at a recent American Meteorological Society international meeting on Global Climate Studies in Phoenix, Arizona, David Rind and Judith Lean of NASA demonstrated that about half of the observed global warming is ascribed to solar activity. These means that only about 0.5°F of the warming experienced in the last century could be due to other causes, including human activity. Are you familiar with this research, and if so, how does the interplay of solar activity affect climate? Al In seeking to be even more certain that human activities are indeed affecting climate the USGCRP agencies support a number of scientists whose research focuses on attempting to better quantify the contributions of natural influences on the climate. David Rind of NASA and Judith Lean of the Naval Research Laboratory are two of these scientists and they are making important advances that What we understand their research to show is that variations in solar radiation correlate well with changes in the Earth's climate over several centuries prior to the 20th century. As to magnitudes of natural and human changes, virtually all studies show that natural factors dominated global-scale climate changes prior to the 20th century, and that human influences are apparently dominating in the second half of the 20th century, with even greater dominance predicted for the 21st century. The Rind-Lean results also suggest that solar variability did contribute to the warming during the first half of this century, with the solar effect peaking at about 0.5° F around 1940. This warming effect has not continued fully to the present (solar radiation goes both up and down over time in cycles), so that this full amount cannot be subtracted from the 1.0 to 1.3° F warming that has occurred since the mid-19th century. In summary, we believe that the solar variation studies show that the climate is indeed responsive to change in the Earth's radiation balance and that model simulations of climate changes since 1850 are improved by consideration of solar and human influences. However, it is quite clear that if the atmosphere responds to the radiation changes of the solar cycle, it will respond even more to the dramatically greater forcing from greenhouse gases. (See attached chart summarizing the IPCC's findings). Together, these results enhance our confidence in the predictions of even more significant human-induced climate change during the 21st century. |