by Sean Reilly
E&E News reporter

When acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler laid out the need for more certainty to agency employees in a get-acquainted speech Wednesday, his top priority might have come as a surprise: risk communication.

“Risk communication goes to the heart of EPA’s mission of protecting public health and the environment,” he said. “We must be able to speak with one voice and clearly explain to the American people the relevant environmental and health risks that they face, that their families face and that their children face.”…

Steve Milloy, a Trump administration ally and author of the book “Scare Pollution: Why and How To Fix the EPA,” saw it as evidence Wheeler will pursue a contentious proposal to limit the types of studies the agency can use in drafting new regulations to those in which the underlying data are publicly available for “independent validation.” Supporters describe the plan as a way to bolster confidence in EPA rulemaking, while critics view it as a strategy to exclude important research…

“Andrew was on the front lines of how the coal industry got railroaded” with “junk science,” Milloy said.

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