GOP lawmakers slam EPA chief over firing of science advisers

WASHINGTON — Two Home Republicans are demanding that the Environmental Safety Company present information associated to a call by the company’s new chief to take away dozens of scientists and different consultants from two key advisory boards.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan has stated the advisers appointed beneath the Trump administration have been overly pleasant to enterprise and that his March 31 “reset” of the Science Advisory Board and Clear Air Scientific Advisory Committee would return EPA to its follow of counting on recommendation from a balanced group of consultants.

Regan’s overhaul eliminated greater than 45 members of the 2 science advisory boards, together with some whose phrases don’t expire this 12 months. The panels present scientific experience and proposals for air high quality requirements and different insurance policies supposed to guard public well being and the atmosphere.

However GOP Reps. James Comer of Kentucky and Ralph Norman of South Carolina criticized Regan for what they known as an unwarranted “purge” primarily based extra on politics than science. Comer is the senior Republican on the Home Oversight Committee, whereas Norman is the highest Republican on the panel’s atmosphere subcommittee.

“Historically science advisory boards are bipartisan panels used to supply recommendation to the administrator. Sadly, it seems the Biden administration is continuous to purge officers within the authorities who don’t share its political opinions,” Comer and Norman wrote Wednesday in a letter to Regan.

“The midterm firing of science advisory board members throughout the first months of a brand new administration …. raises severe issues concerning the politicization of the EPA,” they added.

Regan instructed The Related Press in an interview late final month that whereas he was clearing out the 2 essential panels, ousted members can apply for reinstatement.

“Scientific integrity is a foundational worth for EPA,″ Regan stated. “And I’m committing to making sure that each single choice we make meets rigorous scientific requirements.’’

Democrats have stated a 2017 choice by Donald Trump’s first EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, to take away many tutorial scientists from the advisory panels tilted them in favor of the chemical and fossil gasoline industries. Pruitt barred scientists from serving on the advisory boards if they’d acquired EPA analysis grants. Pruitt later resigned amid ethics scandals however his insurance policies have been largely continued beneath his successor and former deputy, Andrew Wheeler.

John Graham, the previous chairman of the Science Advisory Board, stated final week that Regan’s “radical motion″ disrupted his service and that of each board member. The Indiana College professor stated he won’t reapply “as a result of I respectfully protest the complete course of that Administrator Regan has concocted.″

Regan, 44, was sworn in March 11 as the primary Black man to run the EPA. He served as North Carolina’s high environmental regulator for 4 years earlier than that and likewise labored on the EPA through the Clinton and Bush administrations.

He instructed the AP that the reset of the 2 advisory boards — and the removing of all members of each boards — “are indicative of how severe we’re about repairing the scientific integrity at EPA.″

The EPA additionally will probably be a part of a White Home effort to analyze Trump-era political interference in science throughout the chief department, Regan stated.

Of their letter, Comer and Norman requested the EPA to supply by April 21 all paperwork and communications — together with any with the White Home — from Jan. 20 on associated to the ouster of the advisory board members.