by Timothy Cama
The Hill
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt may face legal challenges over his decision to block grant recipients from serving on advisory committees.
Environmentalists, Democrats and scientific societies have slammed Pruitt over the new policy, saying it unnecessarily blocks the best experts in their fields from giving the agency advice, while allowing industry officials to continue to have influence through the panels…
Steve Milloy, a lawyer who is an outspoken skeptic of past scientific conclusions by the EPA on matters like climate change and air pollution, said he’s confident the new standards can withstand legal scrutiny.
“I think that he’s on firm ground,” Milloy said of Pruitt. “Administrators have discretion to construct their panels, and the panels have to be independent and unbiased.”
Milloy had long pushed to kick EPA grantees off boards. He worked with the conservative Energy and Environmental Legal Institute last year to sue the EPA, arguing that grantees were too conflicted to legally be allowed to serve.
