by Steve Millloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As appearing in the Washington Times
Administration fires all the members of EPA’s independent science advisory groups
When Biden EPA chief Michael Regan arrived at the Environmental Protection Agency, he sent agency staff an email reaffirming his commitment to “scientific integrity as a core value at EPA.”
So what’s the first major action he took? He fired all EPA’s independent external science advisers.
It’s a sinister move that sets the table for all sorts of nefarious regulatory activity, especially on climate.
On March 31 and for the first time in history, a new administration — the Biden “listen to the science” administration — fired all the members of the EPA’s independent science advisory groups, including the statutorily mandated Science Advisory Board and the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC).
The agency announced it would reconstitute the two boards. In an email to its terminated advisers, it stated, “EPA aims to return to the agency’s well-established processes for bringing a balanced group of world-renowned scientific experts to these committees.” The EPA explained its decision by blaming the Trump EPA for “process irregularities” in how it had constituted the boards.
