H.R. 1422, which passed 229-191, would shake up the EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board, placing restrictions on those pesky scientists and creating room for experts with overt financial ties to the industries affected by EPA regulations.
The bill is being framed as a play for transparency: Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, argued that the board’s current structure is problematic because it “excludes industry experts, but not officials for environmental advocacy groups.” The inclusion of industry experts, he said, would right this injustice.
But the White House, which threatened to veto the bill, said it would “negatively affect the appointment of experts and would weaken the scientific independence and integrity of the SAB.”
In what might be the most ridiculous aspect of the whole thing, the bill forbids scientific experts from participating in “advisory activities” that either directly or indirectly involve their own work. In case that wasn’t clear: experts would be forbidden from sharing their expertise in their own research — the bizarre assumption, apparently, being that having conducted peer-reviewed studies on a topic would constitute a conflict of interest. “In other words,” wrote Union of Concerned Scientists director Andrew A. Rosenberg in an editorial for RollCall, “academic scientists who know the most about a subject can’t weigh in, but experts paid by corporations who want to block regulations can.”
Obviously the President is going to veto this, but it certainly paints a frightening picture of what might happen if the Republicans manage to get a veto proof majority, or somehow get a Republican into the White House.
They aren't even being covert about these kids of things anymore, or trying to hide the fact that they are anti-science and in the pockets of big business.
The Koch tools work tirelessly to establish a corporatocracy. The evangelicals work tirelessly to establish a theocracy. 1984, The Handmaid's Tale, and an Ayn Rand dystopia is what these folks work for. There are a lot of them. It's rather discouraging.
ReplyDeleteI would say “This is insane," but what does that mean anymore?
ReplyDeleteAnd the good "Dr. Dan" Benishek, from northern Michigan, voted with his GOP pals for this. He also voted for the Keystone pipeline. Just what his masters, Charles and David Koch, expected of him. These votes by a man who made a huge fuss during the campaign about how he's a knowledgeable man of medicine and about how much he cares for his children and grandchildren and all the other children and grandchildren in his district. All in advertisements paid for by Koch front groups. The majority party in the present House of Representatives and in the next Congress is totally owned by the Koch brothers. And no one in the mainstream media gives a shit.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Leave it to the fuck-heads at FOX to use unusually cold, lethal weather to somehow deny climate change of any stripe. These guys would make perfect Nazis.
ReplyDeleteThey select one small region that is showing unusual weather characteristics and use it as an example to fit their agenda. Hello, it's called climate CHANGE, meaning anything can happen. Yes, it's been unusually cold in the Lower 48, but meanwhile Alaska has been basking in warmer than usual weather and there is hardly a trace of snow on the ground in most parts of South-central.
DeleteNo one knows 100% what climate change holds in store for any particular region, but from what we've seen recently the climate is definitely showing some changes, leading the weather patterns to change and for weather to not behave in many regions as historical data and forecasting models suggest it should, in other words, the definition of "change". These people are absolutely daft.
I am starting to give up on this country.
ReplyDeleteThe only question is, just where in the world would I be safe from these lunatics - because the rest of the world is starting to follow our lead and is starting to elect numbsculls like ours.
Scary.
This, and the underfunding of NSF, NIH and NASA, is why bright young American-educated scientists are returning to their homelands where they are respected. And US students are seriously thinking of following them. We are so screwed.
ReplyDeleteAny time you hear a Republican utter the word "transparency" you just know that it means the opposite. A fine example is the case of ex-Governor Sarah Palin, who ran on a platform of "transparency" meaning she exposed the secrets and misdeeds of everyone but her and her cronies.
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