Scott Pruitt sign a young directive at the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) this Tuesday that all but eradicate what was left of its scientific advisory board .
At a surrealceremonythat involve the inclusion of bilk Biblical references – and while flanked by some of the most long - standing and influential climate deniers in Washington – Pruitt announced that any scientist funded by the agencycannot give adviceon how it follow up it .
Researchers at the EPA are now essentially restricted to carrying out fairlyneutered workon environmental issues , pollution , and climate modification , most of which is already ignored by the top brass .
Earlier this class , it was announced that the vast majority of the scientists that sat on one of three councils at the EPA would not have their contracts regenerate . Ever since , the agency has been gradually penetrate bycoal lobbyistsand petrochemical industriousness darlings , and they are now gestate to plant the majority of those that sit on these consultive boards .
“ We denounce the conclusion to disallow qualified scientific experts from put up grounds - ground info as phallus of its scientific discipline consultant board , ” Rush Holt , the main executive officer for the American Association of the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) , said in a press assertion e-mail to reporters .
“ This EPA conclusion is motivated by politics , not the desire for quality scientific information . ”
The EPA has undergo a systematicpurgeof all its key academician ever since Pruitt consume over as its administrator . This previous annunciation is both an unprecedented and extremely damaging move , the likes of which has n’t been seen since the agency’screationback in 1970 .
It certainly matches Pruitt’searlier magniloquence , who say back in August that science should n’t dictate American policy .
At Tuesday ’s press group discussion , he said that “ we need to ensure that there ’s integrity in the cognitive operation and that the scientists that are advising us are doing so without any type of appearance of conflict of stake . ”
It ’s been pointed out that the X - industry staffers and fossil fuel lobbyists set to be in charge of these consultative instrument panel will absolutely endure from engagement of stake . Unlike EPA scientists , whose task it is to understand how good to protect the environment and human health , these soul will have a far more life-threatening ethos .
Just as an example , the new head of the Science Advisory Board – the most significant of the three EPA councils – will beMichael Honeycutt , a toxicologist who spend his time at a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality , acontroversialorganization that repeatedly failed to hold polluter to account .
It ’s wide concur that the best hoi polloi to work or at least apprise federal scientific agencies are scientific experts – but it appears the Trump brass hasmissedthisvital memo .
