A New Face at a Tired Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency announced today that Dr. Deborah Swackhamer will be the new chair of the EPA Science Advisory Board. The board, composed of outside scientists and engineers, reviews the scientific information upon which the EPA bases policy decisions. The two-year appointment comes at the tail end of a long period of sustained damage to the EPA’s scientific integrity at the hand of conservatives and the Bush administration.
There’s Administrator Stephen Johnson’s refusal to listen to his own advisors on climate change, the sustained political interference with scientific work, and juridical rebukes for inadequate regulation. (The Union of Concerned Scientists keeps a comprehensive catalog of abuses at EPA and elsewhere.)
The announcement comes the day before the House Energy and Commerce Committee holds a hearing aptly entitled “Science Under Siege: Scientific Integrity at the Environmental Protection Agency.” Coincidence?
Unfortunately, the only thing that may save the EPA is a new administration.
(Cartoon from the Cartoonist Group.)
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