I've already contacted my representative and said that "[w]e pay for clean air and water with money and thoughtful regulation. If we shackle the EPA like this we will pay for the profits of a few with the health and quality of life of all of our children."
In early February, a Republican congressman from Florida introduced a bill that would “terminate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)” by next December. But the agency isn’t going anywhere, and neither is the bill. As my colleague Robinson Meyer argued, it’s “stunt legislation,” with next-to-no chance of actually becoming law.
But you don’t need to destroy the EPA to render it dysfunctional. There are subtler ways.
In a recent hearing titled “Making the EPA Great Again,” Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science Committee, accused the EPA of pursuing “a political agenda, not a scientific one,” of proposing the most “ineffective regulations in history,” and of relying on “questionable science based on nonpublic information.” His solution is a pair of bills—the HONEST Act and the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Reform Act—that are currently wending their way through Congress.
Both bills speak of inarguable goods like transparency, balance, and scientific integrity. They’re meant to “promote an open and honest EPA,” according to a statement from Smith, whose largest campaign contributors are oil and gas companies. But several policy experts say that the bills are Trojan horses. They say that the seemingly positive HONEST Act would actually sever the EPA from much of the scientific evidence that it relies upon, while its companion would cut the agency off from many of its scientific experts—and both would strangle the EPA in costly bureaucracy.
“They’re trying to put a positive spin on it, and for obvious reasons: You’re not going to put on a piece of paper that you’re not interested in pursuing sound science,” says Gina McCarthy, the outgoing EPA administrator. “They’re really designed to prevent us from getting the information we need to protect public health.”
It’s not clear whether the bills are meant to disempower the EPA, but it is notable that they represent a politically safe way of doing so. The agency not only protects the environment; it also protects people from the environment by enforcing longstanding laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. And such protections are popular with Americans on both sides of the political spectrum. “It would be unpopular to attack these laws directly, but you can go after the way the EPA administers those laws,” says Yogin Kothari from the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“The result of each bill will be the same—worse science at EPA and less public health protections for American citizens,” says Eddie Bernice Johnson, ranking Democrat member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. “If these bills become law, the ultimate result will be more sick Americans and more dead Americans.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/science...to-gut-the-epa-in-the-name-of-honesty/519462/
In early February, a Republican congressman from Florida introduced a bill that would “terminate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)” by next December. But the agency isn’t going anywhere, and neither is the bill. As my colleague Robinson Meyer argued, it’s “stunt legislation,” with next-to-no chance of actually becoming law.
But you don’t need to destroy the EPA to render it dysfunctional. There are subtler ways.
In a recent hearing titled “Making the EPA Great Again,” Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science Committee, accused the EPA of pursuing “a political agenda, not a scientific one,” of proposing the most “ineffective regulations in history,” and of relying on “questionable science based on nonpublic information.” His solution is a pair of bills—the HONEST Act and the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Reform Act—that are currently wending their way through Congress.
Both bills speak of inarguable goods like transparency, balance, and scientific integrity. They’re meant to “promote an open and honest EPA,” according to a statement from Smith, whose largest campaign contributors are oil and gas companies. But several policy experts say that the bills are Trojan horses. They say that the seemingly positive HONEST Act would actually sever the EPA from much of the scientific evidence that it relies upon, while its companion would cut the agency off from many of its scientific experts—and both would strangle the EPA in costly bureaucracy.
“They’re trying to put a positive spin on it, and for obvious reasons: You’re not going to put on a piece of paper that you’re not interested in pursuing sound science,” says Gina McCarthy, the outgoing EPA administrator. “They’re really designed to prevent us from getting the information we need to protect public health.”
It’s not clear whether the bills are meant to disempower the EPA, but it is notable that they represent a politically safe way of doing so. The agency not only protects the environment; it also protects people from the environment by enforcing longstanding laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. And such protections are popular with Americans on both sides of the political spectrum. “It would be unpopular to attack these laws directly, but you can go after the way the EPA administers those laws,” says Yogin Kothari from the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“The result of each bill will be the same—worse science at EPA and less public health protections for American citizens,” says Eddie Bernice Johnson, ranking Democrat member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. “If these bills become law, the ultimate result will be more sick Americans and more dead Americans.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/science...to-gut-the-epa-in-the-name-of-honesty/519462/
