by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As appearing in the Washington Times
Administration is sneakily trying to regulate climate on a state-to-state basis
Statistician S. Stanley Young has just sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, alleging it has illegally stacked a legally required panel of independent science advisors with agency cronies. Past the issue of complying with the law, the lawsuit’s outcome could very well determine whether the federal government can, through the back door, regulate greenhouse gas emissions on a state-by-state basis.
The Clean Air Act requires that, when setting air quality standards, EPA seek the advice of a panel of experts known as the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). When Biden EPA administrator Michael Regan assumed office earlier this year, one of the first things he did was abruptly and without cause fire by terse email all the members of all EPA’s science advisory panels, including CASAC. Administrator Regan also announced he was jettisoning conflict-of-interest rules (instituted by the Trump EPA) barring science advisors from being current or recent recipients of EPA grants.
Dr. Young, serving at the time on EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), was one of those terminated advisors. When EPA announced it would seek nominations to reconstitute CASAC and the SAB, Dr. Young was renominated to both but was not selected to either by the agency.
