{"id":18131,"date":"2018-10-27T13:47:37","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T18:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=18131"},"modified":"2018-10-27T18:45:59","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T23:45:59","slug":"those-voices-are-unwelcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/10\/27\/those-voices-are-unwelcome\/","title":{"rendered":"Those Voices Are Unwelcome"},"content":{"rendered":"

I see the EPA<\/strong><\/em> doesn’t see the value in, oh, clean air.<\/em> This<\/a> is the headline from IFL Science!<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

EPA Announces It Will Discontinue Science Panel That Reviews Air Pollution Safety<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps it’s a bit un-nuanced:<\/p>\n

Made up of doctors, researchers, and other experts, the 20-person Particulate Matter Review Panel works to provide guidelines on particulate matter (PM) \u2013 tiny solid particles found in the air, such as soot \u2013 known to cause respiratory and other health issues. The panel will be replaced by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), a seven-member group established in 1977 under the Clean Air Act to address \u201cresearch related to air quality, sources of air pollution, and the strategies to attain and maintain air quality standards.\u201d CASAC will be legally required to advise the EPA administrator on quality standards beginning in 2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sounds like a bureaucratic rearrangement and even streamlining. But the Union of Concerned Scientists<\/strong><\/em> is not happy<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The administration might claim to be making this move in the name of streamlining but there are much bigger consequences to eliminating science from the process.\u00a0 Sure, it will be a faster process to update the PM standard without a review panel, but we\u2019ll also have a less science-based process. Review panels effectively serve as a public peer-review of the EPA\u2019s integrated science assessments, which detail the state of the science on pollutants.\u00a0 Without a PM review panel, there is far less expert input informing the PM standard.<\/p>\n

But perhaps this is precisely the point. The administration has made clear that they are interested in\u00a0fast-tracking the PM and ozone reviews<\/a>\u00a0in order to set new standards before the end of the administration.\u00a0 This is an aggressive timeline, considering that the EPA is only required to update the standards every five years, and usually needs more time to conduct the careful, science-based process of characterizing the state of the science on a pollutant\u2019s health effects and working with scientific experts to issue a standard that is protective of public health. If you can eliminate this careful scientific assessment, you can speed up the process, but at the expense of public health.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My suspicion? Acting EPA<\/strong><\/em> Administrator Andrew Wheeler is apparently from the same mold as his predecessor, the disgraced Scott Pruitt, as the DeSmog<\/strong><\/em> blog notes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Coal lobbyist\u00a0Andrew Wheele<\/a>r, the\u00a0interim administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA<\/span>) after the resignation of Scott Pruitt,\u00a0<\/a>has held positions as the Washington Coal Club’s Vice President and\u00a0President. Wheeler’s\u00a0profile at\u00a0Faegre Baker Daniels consulting<\/a>, as recently as April 2018, listed him as the\u00a0WCC<\/span>‘s vice president. The group’s most recent tax filings, as of 2016,\u00a0listed him as president<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0informational brochure<\/a>\u00a0described the coal club as a \u201csmall informal group with a mutual interest in coal,\u201d while boasting board representation and sponsorship from some of the largest coal companies in the country. Its mailing address in 2014 was listed as courtesy of Arch Coal. According to the brochure, its \u201cmain activity is a luncheon-meeting program, which is held monthly\u201d and\u00a0\u201con or close to the\u00a0U.S.<\/span>Capitol complex in Washington,\u00a0DC<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Washington Coal Club’s website no longer appeared in operation\u00a0as of May\u00a02017<\/a>. However, in December 2017, the group\u00a0bestowed \u201cLifetime Achievement Awards\u201d<\/a>\u00a0on numerous individuals including vocal climate change denier and Murray Energy\u00a0CEO<\/span>\u00a0Robert E. Murray.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Attributions omitted.]<\/p>\n

That last bit would indicate to me that Wheeler has a set of views that are out of step with traditional EPA<\/strong><\/em> views. So my assessment is that he was hearing voices saying things he didn’t want to hear, so, in the tradition of autocrats everywhere – he silenced them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I see the EPA doesn’t see the value in, oh, clean air. This is the headline from IFL Science!: EPA Announces It Will Discontinue Science Panel That Reviews Air Pollution Safety Perhaps it’s a bit un-nuanced: Made up of doctors, researchers, and other experts, the 20-person Particulate Matter Review Panel \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18131"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18134,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18131\/revisions\/18134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}