This development was timely and needed for several reasons, which are described in Atmospheric Chemistry Program Program Operation Plan (DOE, 1993a). DOE had been actively formulating strategic plans for an updated national energy policy at the time of the ACP's inception. During the 1980s, much of the atmospheric research supported by OHER's Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program had been strongly associated with the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP). The temporary demise and subsequent reauthorization of NAPAP, combined with shifting DOE priorities, demanded a restructuring and refocusing of BER program research elements to address new and broader atmospheric issues. Finally, the BER program faced a challenging coordination problem with its variety of atmospheric chemistry efforts at numerous federal laboratories and universities throughout the nation, and a well-structured program such as the ACP is essential for maximizing the pooled scientific benefit of these diverse efforts.
A need to examine the Atmospheric Chemistry Program became apparent in late 1996. New proposals for all ACP projects were to be requested in early 1997. The ACP Annual Meetings in 1994-96 indicated that progress by university, federal laboratories, and private organizations was being made in many areas, some projects were reaching their goals, and new issues were being identified. Projects that were initiated in 1994 along the guidelines described in Overview of the DOE Atmospheric Chemistry Program's Ozone Project (DOE, 1993b) on stratospheric ozone and ultraviolet-b (UV-B) solar radiation in the mid-latitudes were nearing completion of a four-year cycle.
The need for scientific information on atmospheric chemistry has been further elucidated since ACP planning documentation was written in 1993 (DOE, 1993a, 1993b). Although the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT, United States Public Law 102-489) provided strong guidance for ACP research planning in 1993, new sources of guidance have subsequently been generated. One of these sources was the Research Strategy and Charter of the North American Research Strategy for Tropospheric Ozone program (NARSTO, 1994), to which the ACP contributed research efforts in 1995 and 1996. NARSTO can be considered as a follow-on to the National Research Council report Rethinking the Ozone Problem in Urban and Regional Air Pollution (NRC, 1991) and a means of compiling scientific information needed for adjustments mandated under the U.S. Clean Air Act and its 1990 amendments. The report Aerosol Radiative Forcing and Climate Change published for the National Research Council (NRC, 1996) provided a plan for aerosol research that will guide some of ACP's future research directions. In addition, changes in the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone and aerosols are likely to be recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Basic scientific information on atmospheric chemistry in relation to energy planning appears to be needed to determine the most cost-effective means of meeting such new standards, and the ACP is positioned to have a central role in this research.
References
DOE, 1993a: Atmospheric Chemistry Program, Program Operation Plan. DOE/ER-0586T, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Health and Environmental Research, Washington, D.C.
DOE, 1993b: Overview of the DOE Atmospheric Chemistry Program's Ozone Project. DOE/ER-0575T, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Health and Environmental Research, Washington, D.C.
NRC, 1991: Rethinking the Ozone Problem in Rural and Regional Air Pollution. National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
NRC, 1996: Aerosol Radiative Forcing and Climate Change. National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
NARSTO, 1994: NARSTO Research Strategy and Charter. (A copy can be obtained via anonymous ftp by following the instructions given on the NARSTO World Wide Web hompage at http://narsto.owt.com/Narsto/.)