n e w s o f t h e w e e k S^V?.'
The railroads, along with the Western Coal Traffic League
(WCTL), challenged STB's mora-torium on the grounds that Congress
never gave STB the legal au-thority to take such an action. BNSF,
CN, and WCTL argued that STB's 15-month pause on rail consolidation
vio-lated a strict timetable, set by Congress, for the STB review
of proposed railroad mergers.
But in deciding for STB, the court ruled that the moratorium was
consistent with the broader intent of Congress. STB must consider
mergers expeditiously, the court said, but STB is also charged with
taking into account the effect of mergers on the adequacy of
transportation for the public and on competition among the
railroads.
| The American Chem-in istry Council (ACC), for-z merly the
Chemical
Manufacturers Associa-tion, had opposed the proposed BNSF-CN
merger and is pleased with the courfs decision. 'The upholding of
the moratorium on rail merg-ers only reinforces the need to further
deregu-late the railroad industry to ensure competition,,,
says ACC President and CEO Frederick L Webber.
Webber has repeatedly called for STB to require merged railroads
to offer cus-tomers access to more than one carrier. 'The business
of chemistry and other in-dustries that rely on railroads will
contin-ue to suffer competitive harm if current merger rules
remain," he adds.
Alex Tullo
High-Tech Workforce Needs Women, Minorities To sustain U.S.
global economic power, leaders in industry, government, and
ac-ademe must act now to reverse the dwindling numbers of women and
mi-norities who seek educations and ca-reers in science and
technology, says a new report on the U.S. high-tech work-force. The
report was delivered to Capi-tol Hill this month by the federal
Com-mission on the Advancement of Women & Minorities in
Science, Engineering & Technology Development.
The reportlike many others before itdetails an alarming lack of
participa-tion in the science and technology work-force by women
and minorities. For ex-ample, it points out that, in 1997, women
earned just 37% of all science and engi-neering degrees, and blacks
and His-panics made up just 3% of the science and technolo-gy
workforce.
The commission, which is housed at the National Science
Foundation (NSF), recommends specific pro-grams that will "advance
the full and equitable partic-ipation of all Americans in SET
[science, engineering, and technology] education; increase the
number of qualified American scien-tists and engineers by
ex-panding the talent pool to
include more women, underrepresented minorities, and persons
with disabilities; and enhance the nation's economic ca-pacity and
technological growth."
The 11-member Morella Commission was established in 1998 after
enactment of legislation introduced by Rep. Con-stance A Morella
(R-Md.) and Rep. Zoe Loigren (D-Calif.). Commissioners were
appointed by President Bill Clinton, members of Congress, and
members of the National Governors' Association.
"Bright kids from poor families are not given access to science
and math education," Lofgren said at a press brief-ing on the
commission's recommenda-tions. "I think that's an outrage. Half the
country is women, and they are not rep-resented in science."
Morella speaks at press conference unveiling high-tech workforce
report recommendations.
"It is time to reinvest in people," Morella commented. "People
are our best resource, and we must invest in them totally."
The commission's action-oriented recommendations, according to
many commission members, stress the need for vastly improved
precollege math and science education. "We must create a strong SET
education pipeline," said commission Chair Elaine Mendoza,
president and chief executive officer of Conceptual Mindworks, San
Antonio, and that pipeline requires "adoption and implementation of
comprehensive high-quality education standards at the state
level."
The press briefingfollowed by a House Science Committee hearing
was attended by many high-profile sci-entists, including Neal F.
Lane, director of the White House Office of Science &
Technology Policy; NSF Director Rita R. Colwell; and Ruth L.
Kirschstein, act-ing director of the National Institutes of Health.
A copy of the full report will be available at the end of August at
http:// www.nsf.gov/od/cawmset/.
William Schulz
First Acrylic Acid Unit Slated For Brazil The race to become
South America's first large-scale producer of acrylic acid may have
a winner: BASF.
The company announced last week that it has signed an agreement
with Brazil's state-owned oil and gas compa-ny, Petrobras, to study
construction of a $300 million acrylic acid plant that would have
capacity of 160,000 metric tons per year.
Depending on the results of the study, the plant could be
onstream by the end of 2003, also making derivatives such as
glacial acrylic acid, acrylate es-ters, and superabsorbent
polymers. It will be built either at Petrobras' So Jos dos Campos
refinery or at an existing BASF site in Guaratinguet, where the
company is constructing a butyl acrylate plant.
Petrobras' decision to partner with BASF is a blow to two other
parties that were vying to build the continent's first big acrylic
acid plant Oxiteno, a unit of Brazil's Ultrapar, had licensed
Mitsubishi Chemical technology for a plant it wanted to build at
the So Jos dos Campos refin-ery. And the StoHaas acrylic acid
manu-
1 0 JULY 24,2000 C&EN
http://http://www.nsf.gov/od/cawmset/
High-Tech Workforce Needs Women, Minorities
