Tuesday, the acting director of EPA dropped the members of two of the agency’s influential consulting committees. In an email, James Payne said they could apply for reapplication for their positions.
Justin Sullivan / Getty images
hide
tilting legend
Justin Sullivan / Getty images
Members of two of the most influential advisory committees of the Environmental Protection Agency, responsible for providing independent scientific advice to the agency chief, discovered on Tuesday evening that they had been ousted. An e-mail sent to members of the EPA Scientific Advisory Council (SAB) and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) informed them that members of the two groups are “reset”.
The interim administrator of the EPA James Payne wrote in the email, consulted by NPR, that “EPA works to update these federal consulting committees to ensure that the agency receives advice scientists in accordance with its legal obligations to advance our main mission. “
The decision comes in the wake of dozens of decrees Signed by President Trump during his first week in power which affects many aspects of federal policy, from immigration to climate and energy priorities.
A request for appointments to complete the SAB and Casac will be announced in the coming weeks, according to the email.
“I am disappointed,” explains Barbara Turpin, former member of Casac and atmospheric pollution expert at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and one of the members of the committee released on Tuesday. But, she adds, “I am not surprised because it happened the last time that Trump was president.”
During the first Trump administration, EPA administrator, Andrew Wheeler, rejected members of Casac and dismantled panels responsible for reviewing science on air pollution. In 2021, during the Biden administration, the administrator of the EPA Michael Rejea Replaced the members of the two science consulting panelsSaying that this decision was necessary to “reverse the gaps” in the advisory process during the first term Trump.
In an email, an EPA news agent said that Tuesday’s decision “sought to reverse the politicization of Sab and Casac made by the previous administration”.
A story of scientific advice
The advisory committees were created in the 1970s. They were responsible for providing independent advice to the EPA administrator, summarizing the best sciences available to help clarify the agency’s policy. From a 1977 amendment to the Clean Air ActTHE Clean air scientific advisory committeeFor example, takes comments from expert panels, mainly university scientists. They summarize these contributions and provide advice on national standards of ambient air quality of the agency, which regulate the country’s air pollution.
The Committee recently suggested that the agency tightens standards for fine particles pollution, called PM 2.5. This pollution comes from many sources, including the combustion of fossil fuels and smoke from forest fires, and has been linked to health risks, including a higher risk of cardiovascular problems and a previous beginning of dementia. After the committee’s recommendations, the agency hasDoped for stricter limits In 2024 – The first update of rules in more than a decade.
Casac was starting to work on recommendations for updated standards on ozone, explains Mary Rice, a pulmonologist and atmospheric pollution expert at Harvard University who was, until Tuesday, a member of Casac.
The Clean Air Act requires that EPA establishes national air quality standards to “protect public health with adequate safety margin,” she said. “I am concerned about whether the American EPA will initiate an advisory committee for scientists to ensure that the safety margin is respected for children, people with heart or pulmonary diseases and the elderly,” she said .