EPA's scientific advisers warn its regulatory rollbacks clash with established science

[applegrove]

EPA’s scientific advisers warn its regulatory rollbacks clash with established science

By Juliet Eilperin at the Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/epas-scientific-advisers-warn-its-regulatory-rollbacks-clash-with-established-science/2019/12/31/a1994f5a-227b-11ea-a153-dce4b94e4249_story.html

"SNIP......

The Environmental Protection Agency is pushing ahead with sweeping changes to roll back environmental regulations despite sharp criticism from a panel of scientific advisers, most of whom were appointed by President Trump.

The changes would weaken standards that govern waterways and wetlands across the country, as well as those that dictate gas mileage for U.S. automobiles. Another change would restrict the kinds of scientific studies that can be used when writing new environmental regulations, while a fourth would change how the EPA calculates the benefits of limiting air pollutants from coal-fired power plants.

Three of the four draft reports, posted online Tuesday, suggest that the administration’s proposals conflict with established science. They were prepared by members of the EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board, a panel of experts created by Congress in 1978 to review the agency’s scientific methods.

“It really calls into question to what degree these suggested changes are fact-based as opposed to politically motivated,” said Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund who served on the advisory board for two terms before stepping down on Sept. 30.

......SNIP"

[dweller]

1. yeh, and the sun is not yellow

it's chicken !



✌🏼

[keithbvadu2]

2. Time for them to be forced by Trump to resign to spend more time with their families.

Time for them to be forced by Trump to resign to spend more time with their families.

[scarletwoman]

3. "It really calls into question to what degree these suggested changes are fact-based...

as opposed to politically motivated,” said Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund who served on the advisory board for two terms before stepping down on Sept. 30.

Oh, I don't think there's any question that these changes are "politically motivated" - the trump administration doesn't deal in "fact-based."

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. 2020 will be a referendum -- more nightmare or return to reality

We have to hit the ground running. No time for reaching across the aisle. Take back everything and try to make sure humankind survives.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. Republicans don't believe in science

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Hey, I know one of those guys.

H. Christopher Frey, an environmental engineer who served on the board from 2012 to 2018, said that EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has ...

That name rang a bell.

https://www.google.com/search?q=christopher+frey&source=lnms&tbm=nws

{Snip the picture; it's huge.}

Chris Frey

Glenn E. Futrell Distinguished University Professor

919-515-1155 [e-mail] Mann Hall 308

H. Christopher Frey is a professor of environmental engineering in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at NC State. His research interests are measurement and modeling of real-world fuel use and emissions of onroad and nonroad vehicles; modeling and evaluation of advanced energy conversion (e.g., combustion, gasification) and environmental control systems; development and application of methods for quantification of variability and uncertainty and for sensitivity analysis in environmental systems models; and exposure and risk analysis. He teaches courses on air pollution control, environmental exposure and risk assessment, and sustainable infrastructure. He is also an adjunct professor in the Division of Environment and Sustainability at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he has taught on urban air quality and conducts research on exposure to air pollution.

Dr. Frey was Chair of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) from 2012 to 2015. He chaired CASAC review panels on ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and lead. He has served on CASAC review panels for all six criteria air pollutants, including ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and lead. He was a member of the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board from 2012 to 2018. He current serves on an advisory committee on EPA’s “MOVES” vehicle emission factor model. He has served on the Board of Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the National Research Council, an EPA Science Advisory Board panel on expert elicitation, National Research Council committees on review of the toxicological assessment of tetrachloroethylene and of EPA’s New Source Review program, a NARSTO assessment of multipollutant air quality management, and a World Health Organization working group on uncertainty in exposure assessment. He was a lead author for 2006 guidance by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) regarding uncertainty in greenhouse gas emission inventories. He currently serves as a member of the Transportation and Air Quality Committee (ADC20) of the Transportation Research Board and on the Editorial Board of the journal Atmospheric Environment. He is a member of the Publications and Critical Review committees of the Air & Waste Management Association. In 2018, he wrote and delivered the 48th Annual A&WMA Critical Review on “Trends in Onroad Transportation Energy and Emissions.”

Dr. Frey is a Fellow and Past President of the Society for Risk Analysis and a Fellow of the Air & Waste Management Association. Recent awards include the 2019 Frank A. Chambers Award of the A&WMA for excellence in air pollution control. Dr. Frey has a B.S. Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia, and from Carnegie Mellon University he has a Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering and PhD in Engineering and Public Policy.