Rightwing attitudes toward science

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The Environmental Protection Agency under Administrator Scott Pruitt is chipping away at environmental regulations from all sides. Pruitt is rolling back rules on limiting air pollution. He is halting implementation of greenhouse gas restrictions. He is weakening enforcement against polluters. And he is stalling for time on many other responsibilities.

But deeper changes at the EPA may still be to come: eroding the foundations of the rules themselves, through restrictions on science. Since assuming control of the agency, Pruitt’s taken unprecedented steps to oust the agency’s science advisers and replace them with researchers from industry and from states that have previously sued to block environmental regulations.

While his taste for luxury air travel hogs the headlines (he’s spent $2,261 per week on travel, according to the New Republic), Pruitt is now readying a salvo to take out the underlying research for environmental regulations. According to an E&E News report, at a closed-door meeting at the Heritage Foundation earlier this month, Pruitt said he plans to change how the agency uses science to inform its work. (The EPA did not respond to a request from Vox for comment.)

Specifically, he wants to limit the types of studies the agency can use to develop policies with rules modeled on the HONEST Act, a bill championed by outgoing House science committee chair Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) to eliminate “secret science.” Pruitt takes a dim view of science in general: He doesn’t believe that humans are causing climate change, and said “[t]here aren’t sufficient scientific facts to establish the theory of evolution.” He proposed holding a prime-time climate change debate, a format ill-suited to evaluating science. (The idea was shot down by White House chief of staff John Kelly.))

The EPA needs science to make rules to protect health. Scott Pruitt wants to make that harder. - Vox