[ad_1]
Want climate news in your inbox? Register here for Climate Fwd:, our newsletter
WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency plans to dissolve its Office of the Scientific Advisor, a high-level position created to advise E.P.A. According to a person familiar with the agency's projects, the director of scientific research on health and the environment. the the person spoke anonymously because the decision had not yet been made public.
This decision is the latest among several measures taken by the Trump administration that appear to have diminished the role of scientific research in policy making as the administration pursues a program of regulatory reduction.
A spokesman for the EPA. did not return e-mails or phone calls asking for a comment on the go.
Separately on Tuesday, in an unusual gesture, E.P.A. put the head of his child health office, Dr. Ruth Etzel, on administrative leave, while refusing to justify the move. Agency officials told Dr. Etzel, a respected pediatrician epidemiologist, that the move was not disciplinary. As the head of an office that regularly insisted on tightening pollution regulations, which can affect children more powerfully than adults, Dr. Etzel has repeatedly come up against people appointed by the Trump administration.
The scientific advisor of E.P.A. is currently Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, a chemical risk specialist for human health who worked at E.P.A. since 1981, according to the agency's website. Dr. Orme-Zavaleta did not respond to e-mails and phone messages requesting an answer for comment.
It was unclear whether Dr. Orme-Zavaleta would stay at the E.P.A. once the decision takes effect.
According to the E.P.A website, the scientific advisor works across the organization to ensure the highest quality science is integrated into the agency's policies and decisions.
The changes in the two offices, which both report directly to the head of E.P.A, are the acting directors of the agency, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, oversees the reorganization of the agency.
After dissolving the office of the Scientific Advisor, Mr. Wheeler plans merge the position with a position under the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science of the USP, a demotion that would place at least two other levels of leadership between the chief scientist of the E.P.A. and his main decision maker.
"It's certainly a very big demotion, a very big burial of this office," said Michael Halpern, deputy director of the Center for Science and Democracy of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a rights group. "Everything from chemical and health research, to peer testing and data analysis, would inevitably suffer," he said.
The move comes after several months during which the leaders of the E.P.A. have systematically changed the way in which E.P.A. treat science. The former director of the agency, Scott Pruitt, who resigned in July following allegations of ethical violations, proposed in April a regulation that limit the types of scientific research that E.P.A. Officials may consider developing new public health policies, which could weaken the agency's ability to protect public health.
Source link
