ANC
Well-Known Member
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to become a shell of its former self under Scott Pruitt. The latest salvo: the agency’s rejiggered science advisory board stocked with industry types just killed three committees it has traditionally relied on.
The move is another way in which Pruitt’s EPA is becoming hermetically sealed off from outside, impartial advice. In its place, industry and partisan political voices are taking greater prominence in the debates over policies that affect Americans’ health.
The decision to shut down the Ecological Processes and Effects Committee, the Environmental Engineering Committee, and the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee was made at a late May meeting of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board, but researchers on the committees were only notified on Thursday. In an email reviewed by Earther, Tom Brennan, the acting director of the Science Advisory Board office told researchers that, “On the recommendation of the SAB Staff Office, the SAB, unanimously agreed, at our 5/31/18 administrative meeting, to retire three of our current seven standing committees.”
The email went on to say that the decision to disband the committees was made because the “workload does not justify the effort.” Four other committees remain empaneled.
In a response to questions, the EPA reiterated to Earther that keeping the committees “creates unnecessary management and ethics obligations for both committee members and the Agency.” Committee members who spoke with Earther said, however, that they didn’t view it as unnecessary obligations on their end and welcomed the chance to work with the agency. They were also blindsided by the move.
“The message was a surprise,” Timothy Haab, an environmental economist at Ohio State University who was on the economics committee, told Earther. “I fear that losing the advisory committees could jeopardize the objectivity of the science used in making economically sound environmental decisions.”
The three committees axed were largely stocked with academics with subject area expertise the agency could draw on when it wanted outside advice on rules and policies. The economics committee hadn’t been convened since Pruitt took over running the EPA with its last meeting coming in August 2016, according to the Federal Register. The register shows that ecological committee last met in 2012 though it reviewed a policy in 2016, while the engineering committee last met in 2010.....
https://earther.com/the-epa-just-killed-three-more-expert-advisory-committe-1827050248
The move is another way in which Pruitt’s EPA is becoming hermetically sealed off from outside, impartial advice. In its place, industry and partisan political voices are taking greater prominence in the debates over policies that affect Americans’ health.
The decision to shut down the Ecological Processes and Effects Committee, the Environmental Engineering Committee, and the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee was made at a late May meeting of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board, but researchers on the committees were only notified on Thursday. In an email reviewed by Earther, Tom Brennan, the acting director of the Science Advisory Board office told researchers that, “On the recommendation of the SAB Staff Office, the SAB, unanimously agreed, at our 5/31/18 administrative meeting, to retire three of our current seven standing committees.”
The email went on to say that the decision to disband the committees was made because the “workload does not justify the effort.” Four other committees remain empaneled.
In a response to questions, the EPA reiterated to Earther that keeping the committees “creates unnecessary management and ethics obligations for both committee members and the Agency.” Committee members who spoke with Earther said, however, that they didn’t view it as unnecessary obligations on their end and welcomed the chance to work with the agency. They were also blindsided by the move.
“The message was a surprise,” Timothy Haab, an environmental economist at Ohio State University who was on the economics committee, told Earther. “I fear that losing the advisory committees could jeopardize the objectivity of the science used in making economically sound environmental decisions.”
The three committees axed were largely stocked with academics with subject area expertise the agency could draw on when it wanted outside advice on rules and policies. The economics committee hadn’t been convened since Pruitt took over running the EPA with its last meeting coming in August 2016, according to the Federal Register. The register shows that ecological committee last met in 2012 though it reviewed a policy in 2016, while the engineering committee last met in 2010.....
https://earther.com/the-epa-just-killed-three-more-expert-advisory-committe-1827050248
