Last week, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt signed a proposed rule that would bar studies to be used in the development of federal environmental regulations if data is not publicly available. This includes epidemiological studies, which use private medical information that researchers are required to keep confidential. On April 30th, the public comment period opened and will remain open until May 30, 2018.
Pruitt made an announcement at an invitation-only meeting at the EPA headquarters where he touted it as ensuring transparency in regulatory science (which EPA uses to act upon).
“The era of secret science at EPA is coming to an end,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “The ability to test, authenticate, and reproduce scientific findings is vital for the integrity of rulemaking process. Americans deserve to assess the legitimacy of the science underpinning EPA decisions that may impact their lives.”
Meanwhile, last week, Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee Minority Members led by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) sent Pruitt a letter inquiring about his intent to “limit the ways in which EPA uses scientific information.”
The letter says that the proposed new policy “violates several laws with which EPA must comply as the agency writes rules to protect our air, water and land from harmful pollution.” And, “the proposed new policy will require EPA – when developing rules- to rely only on scientific studies where the underlying data have been made public and are available to be reproduced.”
