There’s disregard for honesty, integrity, and public health. There’s blatant disregard for honesty, integrity, and public health. There’s a giant middle-finger to honesty, integrity, and public health. And there’s this:
The Environmental Protection Agency has dismissed at least five members of a major scientific review board, the latest signal of what critics call a campaign by the Trump administration to shrink the agency’s regulatory reach by reducing the role of academic research.
That’s step one. Step two is to replace knowledgeable scientific advisers by scouring obscure sources for climate change deniers.
“We want to expand the pool of applicants” for the scientific board, [EPA spokesman J. P. Freire] said, “to as broad a range as possible, to include universities that aren’t typically represented and issues that aren’t typically represented.”
Yes. Why restrict the pool of applicants to reputable universities with relevant programs when there’s always a community college somewhere with a volleyball coach who believes more carbon dioxide is good for Bigfoot? But unbelievably, that’s not the worst idea they have.
A spokesman for the E.P.A. administrator, Scott Pruitt, said he would consider replacing the academic scientists with representatives from industries whose pollution the agency is supposed to regulate, as part of the wide net it plans to cast.
Forget the house. This is a direct hen to fox delivery plan.
That Scott Pruitt and the people he’s bringing in represent industry interests is well understood, but the scientific advisory board is supposed to be … scientific. That is, it’s supposed to be staffed by knowledgeable scientists with appropriate credentials who can review data to see if it is factual and look at proposed regulations to see if they’re appropriate and effective.
This isn’t poor government. It’s perverse.
President Trump has directed Mr. Pruitt to radically remake the E.P.A., pushing for deep cuts in its budget — including a 40 percent reduction for its main scientific branch — and instructing him to roll back major Obama-era regulations on climate change and clean water protection. In recent weeks, the agency has removed some scientific data on climate change from its websites, and Mr. Pruitt has publicly questioned the established science of human-caused climate change.