
The Sherburne County (Sherco) Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant owned by Xcel Energy and located in Becker, Minnesota, shown in 2016. (Photo: Tony Webster/Flickr/cc)
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The Sherburne County (Sherco) Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant owned by Xcel Energy and located in Becker, Minnesota, shown in 2016. (Photo: Tony Webster/Flickr/cc)
A federal panel of independent scientific experts says the EPA has flouted the panel's guidance in its efforts to roll back a number of Obama-era regulations, resulting in an agency push that will affect public health for millions of Americans without the consideration of environmental science.
The EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) wrote in four draft reports published online Tuesday that the agency's published revisions to at least four regulations "conflict with established science," according to the Washington Post.
\u201cEPA's independent scientific advisers -- most of whom were appointed under Trump -- have warned that several of the agency's top regulatory rollbacks ignore "established science." https://t.co/SZCbGjrhLf\u201d— Juliet Eilperin (@Juliet Eilperin) 1577821194
Although two-thirds of the SAB's current members are Trump appointees, Juliet Eilperin wrote in the Post, the panel "found serious flaws" in the proposed changes to rules governing pollution, gas mileage, and how regulations are written.
The revisions and regulatory rollbacks in question include:
H. Christopher Frey, an environmental engineering professor at North Carolina State University who served on the board for six years, told the Post that EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is "sidelining the Scientific Advisory Board."
"He obviously has an ideological agenda of pursuing regulatory rollbacks, and the science is not always going to be consistent with that ideological agenda," Frey said.
The EPA's marginalizing of the board as it rolls back regulations "looks like ideology trumping science," tweeted Kathleen Rest, executive director of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
\u201cAn #EPA advisory board \u2014 dominated by scientists appointed by Trump \u2014 found serious flaws in the science behind several of the agency\u2019s proposed changes to our public health and environmental protections. Looks like ideology trumping science \u2066@EPA\u2069. https://t.co/DNhWvEcTLQ\u201d— Kathleen Rest (@Kathleen Rest) 1577822603
The SAB's new reports about the EPA's rollbacks call into question "to what degree these suggested changes are fact-based as opposed to politically motivated," Steven Hamburg of the Environmental Defense Fund, who served on the board until last September, told the Post.
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A federal panel of independent scientific experts says the EPA has flouted the panel's guidance in its efforts to roll back a number of Obama-era regulations, resulting in an agency push that will affect public health for millions of Americans without the consideration of environmental science.
The EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) wrote in four draft reports published online Tuesday that the agency's published revisions to at least four regulations "conflict with established science," according to the Washington Post.
\u201cEPA's independent scientific advisers -- most of whom were appointed under Trump -- have warned that several of the agency's top regulatory rollbacks ignore "established science." https://t.co/SZCbGjrhLf\u201d— Juliet Eilperin (@Juliet Eilperin) 1577821194
Although two-thirds of the SAB's current members are Trump appointees, Juliet Eilperin wrote in the Post, the panel "found serious flaws" in the proposed changes to rules governing pollution, gas mileage, and how regulations are written.
The revisions and regulatory rollbacks in question include:
H. Christopher Frey, an environmental engineering professor at North Carolina State University who served on the board for six years, told the Post that EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is "sidelining the Scientific Advisory Board."
"He obviously has an ideological agenda of pursuing regulatory rollbacks, and the science is not always going to be consistent with that ideological agenda," Frey said.
The EPA's marginalizing of the board as it rolls back regulations "looks like ideology trumping science," tweeted Kathleen Rest, executive director of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
\u201cAn #EPA advisory board \u2014 dominated by scientists appointed by Trump \u2014 found serious flaws in the science behind several of the agency\u2019s proposed changes to our public health and environmental protections. Looks like ideology trumping science \u2066@EPA\u2069. https://t.co/DNhWvEcTLQ\u201d— Kathleen Rest (@Kathleen Rest) 1577822603
The SAB's new reports about the EPA's rollbacks call into question "to what degree these suggested changes are fact-based as opposed to politically motivated," Steven Hamburg of the Environmental Defense Fund, who served on the board until last September, told the Post.
A federal panel of independent scientific experts says the EPA has flouted the panel's guidance in its efforts to roll back a number of Obama-era regulations, resulting in an agency push that will affect public health for millions of Americans without the consideration of environmental science.
The EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) wrote in four draft reports published online Tuesday that the agency's published revisions to at least four regulations "conflict with established science," according to the Washington Post.
\u201cEPA's independent scientific advisers -- most of whom were appointed under Trump -- have warned that several of the agency's top regulatory rollbacks ignore "established science." https://t.co/SZCbGjrhLf\u201d— Juliet Eilperin (@Juliet Eilperin) 1577821194
Although two-thirds of the SAB's current members are Trump appointees, Juliet Eilperin wrote in the Post, the panel "found serious flaws" in the proposed changes to rules governing pollution, gas mileage, and how regulations are written.
The revisions and regulatory rollbacks in question include:
H. Christopher Frey, an environmental engineering professor at North Carolina State University who served on the board for six years, told the Post that EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is "sidelining the Scientific Advisory Board."
"He obviously has an ideological agenda of pursuing regulatory rollbacks, and the science is not always going to be consistent with that ideological agenda," Frey said.
The EPA's marginalizing of the board as it rolls back regulations "looks like ideology trumping science," tweeted Kathleen Rest, executive director of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
\u201cAn #EPA advisory board \u2014 dominated by scientists appointed by Trump \u2014 found serious flaws in the science behind several of the agency\u2019s proposed changes to our public health and environmental protections. Looks like ideology trumping science \u2066@EPA\u2069. https://t.co/DNhWvEcTLQ\u201d— Kathleen Rest (@Kathleen Rest) 1577822603
The SAB's new reports about the EPA's rollbacks call into question "to what degree these suggested changes are fact-based as opposed to politically motivated," Steven Hamburg of the Environmental Defense Fund, who served on the board until last September, told the Post.