Climate-Change Research Gets Big Boost in Budget

By AMY SCHATZ
Climate-change research would get a boost in funding under the budget as a result of a refocusing of resources at several agencies.

The Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would receive $1.3 billion for new weather satellites and climate sensors, as well as research into climate and ocean research.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration would refocus its efforts on global climate research, a major change from the Bush years, when next-generation space flight programs were a priority. NASA's budget calls for a $1.5 billion increase over the next two years, with its fiscal 2010 budget totaling $18.7 billion, and it will be charged with developing new space-based sensors to "deploy a global climate research and monitoring system."
Research funding also would increase for the National Science Foundation, a change from years of flat budgets. The agency will be tasked with developing a climate-change education program for environmental scientists and engineers. The administration calls for doubling the NSF's basic research budget over the next decade, starting with $800 million more in 2009. That doesn't figure in the $3 billion it received from the recently passed $787 billion economic-stimulus package.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration proposes increasing the Commerce Department's budget by $4 billion in 2010 to pay for costs involved in conducting the 2010 census, including the hiring of half-a-million temporary workers. Congress already has approved $1 billion to fund the census in the stimulus package.
Write to Amy Schatz at amy.schatz@wsj.com