H17328
Headlines : GovernmentSurvey Finds Bush Administration Interfering with EPA Scientists
More than 500 EPA scientists knew of “many” or “some” cases “where EPA political appointees had inappropriately involved themselves in scientific decisions,” according to the study.
Nearly 400 scientists, some 31 percent, reported misstatements by EPA officials that misrepresented scientists’ findings, UCS said.
The survey “is a scathing indictment of the Bush administration’s repeated efforts to twist, misuse, and ignore scientific facts in favor of special interests,” [Senator Sheldon] Whitehouse said.
[Posted By Namaste_Rich]Republished from Environment News Service (ENS)
WASHINGTON, DC, April 24, 2008 (ENS) – The Bush administration has frequently meddled with scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a survey released today by a scientific advocacy group. The Union of Concerned Scientists reports that nearly two-thirds of the 1,586 staff EPA scientists who responded to a questionnaire complained of recent political interference with their work.
The reported interference is greatest in offices where scientists write regulations and conduct risk assessments.
“Our investigation found an agency in crisis,” said Francesca Grifo, director of Union of Concerned Scientists’s Scientific Integrity Program, who contends the report reflects an effort by the administration to distort science to “accommodate a narrow political agenda….
Posted by Namaste_Rich
RELATED ITEMS
- 18 states sue EPA over greenhouse gas pollution
Posted by Livingston on Thursday, April 3rd 2008 - Outspoken Scientist Dismissed From EPA Panel on Chemical Safety
Posted by Dilated_Rebel on Saturday, March 1st 2008 - EPA Says 17 States Can’t Set Emission Rules for Cars
Posted by glaszrai on Friday, December 21st 2007 - What You Don't Know Could Kill You
Posted by variable on Thursday, December 13th 2007 - Former E.P.A. head takes heat on altered climate change report and botched 9/11 cleanup (a rant)
Posted by tango on Monday, June 25th 2007 - Exceptions in new EPA rules would allow testing pesticides on children
Posted by mari on Monday, September 26th 2005 - "Alert: EPA to allow Pesticide Testing on Orphans and Mentally Handicapped Children"
Posted by Liam on Friday, November 18th 2005
EPA chief, lawmaker spar over who calls shots
Democrat Waxman accuses Johnson of letting White House trump science
WASHINGTON – The head of the Environmental Protection Agency came under sharp attack at a House hearing Tuesday, with Democratic lawmakers accusing him of repeatedly caving in to White House pressure on environmental issues such as global warming and a recently enacted health standard for smog.
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson rejected the characterization and said that while he frequently discusses EPA matters with the White House, the decisions are his.
But Johnson, appearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for nearly three hours, repeatedly refused to discuss conversations he had with the White House, nor provide a number of documents that have been subpoenaed by the committee concerning the smog standard and his refusal to allow California to proceed with rules to cut greenhouse gases.