The Environmental Protection Agency, in a rare move, dismissed dozens of science advisers Wednesday in a bid to reconfigure the panels following Trump administration appointments that critics said packed the panels with industry representatives.
Members of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board and the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, both of which advise the agency on the science behind its regulations, were informed Wednesday morning their membership on the panels had expired.
The EPA, in notices slated to be published Thursday, is seeking nominations to refill the advisory panels.
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“Resetting these two scientific advisory committees will ensure the agency receives the best possible scientific insight to support our work to protect human health and the environment,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. “Today we return to a time-tested, fair, and transparent process for soliciting membership to these critically important advisory bodies.”
Environmentalists and Democrats had slammed the Trump administration as stacking the advisory panels with individuals who favored less-stringent pollution regulations, including some who argued the EPA’s methodology overstated the public health benefits of reducing air pollution.
The Biden EPA, in its news release, said it would seek to “reverse deficiencies” caused by decisions made by its predecessor. Those moves were widely seen by environmentalists as part of a broader strategy to suppress science that supported stricter pollution mandates.
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That included a 2017 directive from former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt that blocked scientists who had received research grants from the agency from serving on the advisory boards. Critics of that move argued it was an effort to bar otherwise qualified experts from serving on the panels, and a federal appeals court struck down the directive last year, saying the EPA hadn’t adequately explained why it was issuing the policy.
The EPA said it encourages dismissed members of the advisory boards to reapply.
