In Dismissing Scientists, Pruitt Works to Turn EPA into Pro-Polluter Advocacy Group
Oct. 31, 2017
In Dismissing Scientists, Pruitt Works to Turn EPA into Pro-Polluter Advocacy Group
Statement of David Arkush, Managing Director, Public Citizen’s Climate Program
Note: Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced plans to appoint anti-regulation advocates and industry representatives to EPA scientific advisory boards and to dismiss scientists who have received funding from the EPA.
With today’s action, Pruitt takes another terrible step toward remaking the EPA in his own image. Pruitt claims that EPA funding taints and biases science. In his view, EPA is not an expert agency pursuing sound science to protect the public, but a partisan organization pursuing some nefarious private agenda. By dismissing leading scientists from advisory boards and replacing them with his own selection of deregulatory, pro-polluter hacks, he’s turning the agency into precisely what he claims it is.
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