Donald Trump at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, October 10, 2106 (Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Wire)
The criticism is even more significant because many of the 41 scientists were selected by Trump’s advisors. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Scientific Advisory Board posted its draft letters on Tuesday about the scientific integrity of EPA regulations. It challenged the Trump Administration’s gutting of Obama-era measures over waterways and vehicle emissions, and derided a plan to limit scientific data for health regulations. The scientists said the Administration’s approach to water pollution “neglects established science” and they found “significant weaknesses in the scientific analysis of the proposed rule” over emissions. Legal analysts said the Board’s conclusion could bolster court action to block the Administration’s rollbacks. The Administration was rebuffed even though, in its first year in office, it replaced more than a quarter of the scientists on the panel who quit or were dismissed, Michael Honeycutt, the new head of the Board, is viewed as a support of rollback. But he said on Tuesday: We are trying to give the EPA the best science it can in order to make decisions….We’re all scientists. I’ve never worked with a group of people more dedicated to trying to get the science right. We take this very seriously. Corry Schiermeyer, an EPA spokeswoman, said the draft letters can still be revised. The Administration has been marked by its dedication to stripping environmental protections. Trump has claimed that man-made climate change is a Chinese hoax. EPA head Andrew Wheeler is a former lobbyist for the coal industry. At the start of November, Administration officials spoke of the repeal of an Obama-era regulation to limit the release of arsenic, lead, and mercury from coal plants into water supplies. In September, the Administration tried to scrap California’s limits on automobile emissions, and it repealed Obama-era limits on polluting chemicals used near water. Trump’s officials have also removed other restrictions on fossil fuel pollution, including emissions of methane; withdrawn rules over asbestos and pesticides; weakened the Endangered Species Act; and curbed any mention of climate change by Government agencies and scientists. See also TrumpWatch, Day 1,016: Trump Administration to Roll Back Rules on Coal Toxins In Water Supplies
EA on Monocle 24: Trump’s War v. California and Emissions Standards
