EPA fires members of science advisory board

[EC]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fired members of a scientific advisory board yesterday.

The agency quietly forced out some members of the Board of Scientific Counselors just weeks after leaders told them their tenure would be renewed, said Robert Richardson, an ecological economist at Michigan State University and one of those dismissed.

The board is tasked with reviewing the work of EPA scientists and provides feedback that can be a powerful voice in shaping the agency's future research. The cuts "just came out of nowhere," Richardson said.

"The role that science has played in the agency in the past, this step is a significant step in a different direction," he said today. "Anecdotally, based on what we know about the administrator, I think it will be science that will appear to be friendlier to industry, the fossil fuel industry, the chemical industry, and I think it will be science that marginalizes climate change science."

EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/epa-fires-members-science-advisory-board

[Hondo69]

What - The EPA is still in existence?

I'm outraged!!! 

The good news is that we can all ignore EPA regulations now since we have decided to pick and choose which laws to follow.

[Wingnut]

And the liberals are having a conniption fit over the firings! 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/trump-war-science-continues-epa-firings-article-1.3147062

[ConstitutionRose]

What?  They think an appointment to an advisory board is a lifetime thing?

[Free Vulcan]

Liberals say science like it's the holy chalice that holy men in robes hold up and ward off vampires and other evil spirits. It sounds more like a religious term than a scientific one when they use it.

So that these guys got the boot really doesn't bother me.

[Frank Cannon]

The role that science has played in the agency in the past,

LOL. Yeah right. You keep thinking that Dilbert. The rest of us know it is nothing but a political tool to pick winners and losers.

[truth_seeker]

Trump’s war on science continues with EPA firings

Gersh Kuntzman  Updated: Monday, May 8, 2017, 9:32 AM

President Trump's war on basic facts continues — but this time, you'll literally end up choking on it.

Late last week, the President and his Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott "Coal Belchin'" Pruitt quietly fired half of the 18-member Board of Scientific Counselors, a panel that evaluates research done by EPA scientists to help government regulators create the rules that protect clean air, water and soil, among many other things. It's part of a larger war on science that includes a House bill that would require more industry representatives on another EPA science panel so that it's oversight of industry is more "balanced"...towards industry!

Of course, Trump has no use for these panels because he has no use for clean air and water regulations. From the moment he took office, the 45th President began turning back the clock on basic environmental stewardship:

Jan. 23: "President Trump institutes media blackout at EPA." Three days into his administration, the President barred EPA employees "from providing updates on social media or providing information to reporters."

EPA removes climate change page from website

Jan. 25: "Trump administration mandates all EPA studies to be first reviewed by political staffers before public sees them." The policy weakened an Obama Administration rule that allowed scientists to work "uncompromised by political or other interference."

On March 3, Trump proposed chopping the EPA budget by 25% because who needs toxic cleanups or pollution law enforcement? Not the U.S. apparently. (Malven/iStock/Getty Images)

March 3: "President Trump proposes to chop EPA budget by 25%, hitting areas like toxic cleanups and pollution law enforcement." That announcement of a scale-back of the Environmental Protection Agency's role of protecting the environment also came with a kicker: the agency was also "withdrawing an Obama-era request that oil and natural gas companies provide information on methane emissions at oil and gas operations." In other words, who needs to know how much methane is being pumped into the environment? Methane is just air, right?

snip

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/trump-war-science-continues-epa-firings-article-1.3147062

[truth_seeker]

Mod: please delete or move, as I didn't see the other version posted by EC

[driftdiver]

"On March 3, Trump proposed chopping the EPA budget by 25% because who needs toxic cleanups or pollution law enforcement? Not the U.S. apparently. (Malven/iStock/Getty Images) "

1.  Those funds are massive slush funds.  How much work is done at the actual sites?
2.  When will the EPA pay for what they did to that river in Colorado and all of the towns downstream?

[Joe Wooten]

That's a good start! Now start laying off direct employees along with the parasite contractors like this "Science Board".

[Fishrrman]

From the Daily News article above:
"Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott "Coal Belchin'" Pruitt quietly fired half of the 18-member Board of Scientific Counselors"

WHAT?
He fired only 9 of the 18?
Why didn't he fire ALL of them?

[rodamala]

Liberals say science like it's the holy chalice that holy men in robes hold up and ward off vampires and other evil spirits. It sounds more like a religious term than a scientific one when they use it.

So that these guys got the boot really doesn't bother me.

[dfwgator]

[Hondo69]

President Trump's war on basic facts continues . . .

He doesn't say what basic facts.  Since I'm not part of the cult I don't know what he's referring to.

But here's some fun facts while we're at it:

[1] We have more energy than we could possibly ever use.  It just costs 10 times what it should because government doles it out like porridge in a Dickens novel.

[2] Agenda 21 wants to control world population.

[3] The EPA operates in secret for the simple reason their power would diminish greatly if they were transparent.