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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #400 on: January 12, 2018, 08:46:31 PM »
...

Perhaps we need another thread - Trump Administration assaults on the natural environment ?

Not a bad idea.  But I also feel the fewer Trump threads, the better. ;) :-\

I agree - compromise? Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Envionment ?

6roucho created the thread.  Looks like it will take more than an emperor to change it. ;)
It will come up the new way, in the Recent Posts list, if anyone changes it in their post.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #401 on: January 17, 2018, 03:10:07 PM »
Quote
Knowles told the Post that the board hasn't held a meeting since President Trump took office last January despite the board being required by law to meet two times each year.

"We were frozen out," Knowles told the newspaper.

Majority of National Park Service advisory board resigns amid protest
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/369246-majority-of-national-park-service-advisory-board-resigns-amid
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #402 on: January 18, 2018, 04:50:37 PM »
Photographer captures Murray Energy love-fest in Dept. of Energy meeting, with recommendations for coal-friendly steps Rick Perry should take, including replacing FERC members.

He Leaked a Photo of Rick Perry Hugging a Coal Executive. Then He Lost His Job.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/business/rick-perry-energy-photographer.html

https://www.facebook.com/AltUSNationalParkService/posts/1952141315113931
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #403 on: January 19, 2018, 08:53:29 PM »
Quote
Trump has tried to restrict science almost 100 times already.  There are 91 entries on Columbia Law School’s “Silencing Science Tracker,” a searchable database released Friday that intends to document every instance of information censorship or restriction since President Donald Trump was elected. If this is an accurate tally, that means there’s been some kind of attempt to limit government scientific information once every week in Trump’s America.

The online resource is a joint project of Columbia’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit originally created in 2011 to defend scientists from what at the time seemed like the biggest threat facing the climate science community: legal attacks against individual scientists by conservative groups. The group’s priorities have shifted somewhat since Trump’s election. “Political and ideological attacks on science have a long and shameful history, and such attacks are the most dangerous when carried out or condoned by government authorities,” said Lauren Kurtz, CSLDF’s executive director. ...
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/146680/trump-tried-restrict-science-almost-100-times-already
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gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #404 on: January 23, 2018, 11:53:24 AM »
It seems anything dumb that Trump can do, Canada can match.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/22/canada-climate-science-faces-looming-crisis

Quote
Canadian climate science faces crisis that may be felt globally, scientists warn

In a letter to Justin Trudeau, 250 scientists highlight their concern over the imminent end of a research program to better understand climate change

Canadian climate science is facing a looming crisis whose repercussions could be felt far beyond the country’s borders, hundreds of scientists have warned, after the Canadian government failed to renew the country’s only dedicated funding program for climate and atmospheric research.

In an open letter addressed to Justin Trudeau, more than 250 scientists from 22 countries highlight their concern over the imminent end of the C$35m Climate Change and Atmospheric Research program.

Launched in 2012, the program funded seven research networks that explored issues such as the impact of aerosols, changing sea ice and snow cover, as well as atmospheric temperatures in the high Arctic.

Much of the research emerging from the program was focused on Canada’s Arctic, yielding data sets that were used around the world by scientists seeking to better understand climate change and its impacts.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #405 on: January 24, 2018, 05:21:42 PM »
U.S.:  House Science Committee Wants to Investigate a Government Scientist for Doing Science
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/22/linda-birnbaum-niehs-house-science-committee/
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gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #406 on: January 24, 2018, 05:33:58 PM »
U.S.:  House Science Committee Wants to Investigate a Government Scientist for Doing Science
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/22/linda-birnbaum-niehs-house-science-committee/

From the article:-

Quote
In 2013, then-committee Chairs Larry Bucshon and Paul Broun, expressed outrage about a 2012 article, in which she described the harms of endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

“The proliferation of inadequately tested chemicals in commerce may be contributing to the skyrocketing rates of disease,” Birnbaum wrote in that paper. The idea that low doses of chemicals are causing widespread health effects was by then already widely accepted by independent scientists and has since been echoed by the United Nations Environmental Program and the European Commission.

If Trumpistan acolytes keep this up one wonders about the effect on US life expectancy?
« Last Edit: January 26, 2018, 11:18:34 AM by gerontocrat »
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gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #407 on: January 26, 2018, 11:21:51 AM »
Horrible people like the Mercers of Trumpistan have got their sticky fingers in a lot of anti-science pies

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/25/american-museum-of-natural-history-rebekah-mercer

American Museum of Natural History urged to cut ties with 'anti-science propagandist' Rebekah Mercer

Quote
The American Museum of Natural History is under pressure to sever its ties to Rebekah Mercer, one of Donald Trump’s top donors who has used her family’s fortune to fund groups that seek to undermine scientists’ work on climate change.

More than 200 scientists have put their names to a letter that urges the museum to “end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation” and axe Mercer from its board of trustees, a position she has held since 2013.

A separate missive also calling for Mercer’s dismissal has been circulated among the museum’s own curators amid growing concern that the New York institution risks having its mission subverted by Mercer.
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #408 on: January 30, 2018, 04:02:29 AM »
There is nothing to puzzle about, Trump is an s**hole of a president:

Title: "Trump's view that ice caps 'setting records' baffles scientists"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trumps-view-that-ice-caps-setting-records-baffles-scientists/ar-BBIpjHZ?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

Extract: "Scientists puzzled on Monday over U.S. President Donald Trump's assertion that ice caps are "setting records" when much of the world's ice from the Alps to the Andes is melting amid global warming.

Trump cast doubt on mainstream scientific findings about climate change in an interview aired on Britain's ITV channel on Sunday night, saying "there's a cooling and there's a heating".

"The ice caps were going to melt, they were going to be gone by now. But now they're setting records. They're at a record level," he said."
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #409 on: February 01, 2018, 07:32:46 PM »
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Fails Another Senate Test
Quote
APPEARING TUESDAY AT a hearing of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, Scott Pruitt faced a series of yes-or-no questions he could not — or perhaps would not — answer. Instead the EPA administrator dodged inquiries from committee Democrats with polite smiles and disquisitions on the history of various laws. ...
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/30/scott-pruitt-epa-senate-hearing/



New York to sue EPA over Obama water rule delay
Quote
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) pledged Thursday to lead a "multi-state" lawsuit against the Trump administration for delaying a major water pollution rule.

Schneiderman's statement, one day after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the two-year delay, did not specify the states that would join him.

"The Trump administration's suspension of the Clean Water Rule threatens to eliminate protections for millions of miles of streams and acres of wetlands across the country," he said in a statement.

"The Trump administration's suspension of these vital protections is reckless and illegal. That is why I will lead a multistate coalition that will sue to block this rollback in court." ...
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/371818-new-york-to-sue-epa-over-obama-water-rule-delay
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gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #410 on: February 03, 2018, 12:57:22 PM »
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42894171

At last, something it looks like Trumpistan has failed to stop (so far).

Space lasers to track Earth's ice
Grace Follow-On and IceSat-2.

Quote
The former is the successor to the highly successful US-German gravity spacecraft that operated from 2002 to 2017. It's from the first Grace mission's observations, for example, that we know Greenland is currently losing about 280 billion tonnes of ice to the ocean every year. Grace Follow-On will work in the same way as its predecessor did, but it will also demonstrate a laser range-finder. "It's a first in space, and it allows us to do the ranging with much higher precision - a factor of 10 to 20 times better," says US space agency (Nasa) deputy project scientist Felix Landerer. "So, we go from that human hair thickness down to the scale of large viruses."

Back here on Earth, the other ice project this year also involves a laser. IceSat-2 will fire six green beams of light at the Arctic floes and land ice-sheets to measure their shape. Simple but effective: the satellite times the return of the reflected beams and converts that into a range, which in turn is converted into an elevation. The hope is IceSat-2 will be up and operating before Europe's ageing CryoSat mission dies.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #411 on: February 04, 2018, 02:57:31 PM »
Science strikes back!

The Largest Number Of Scientists In Modern U.S. History Is Running For Office In 2018
This comes at a time when there’s only one Ph.D. scientist in Congress.
Quote
More than 60 researchers and technologists are running for federal office in 2018 as part of a historic wave of candidates with science backgrounds launching campaigns.

At least 200 candidates with previous careers in science, technology, engineering and math announced bids for some of the nation’s roughly 7,000 state legislature seats as of Jan. 31, according to data that 314 Action, a political action committee, shared exclusively with HuffPost.

The group, which launched in 2014 to help scientists run for office, said it is talking with 500 more people and is pressing about half of them to run. An additional 200 such candidates are running for school boards.

“The sheer number is really astonishing,” 314 Action founder Shaughnessy Naughton told HuffPost. “We’ve never seen anything like this.”

This is the largest number of scientists to run for public office in modern history. If any of them win, it could dramatically multiply the number of scientists in Congress beyond Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.), the lone Ph.D. scientist, a physicist.

The surge in congressional bids comes as scientists are experiencing a fierce political backlash. A year into his first term, President Donald Trump has yet to name a science adviser and has proposed dramatically slashing research budgets across federal agencies. He openly mocks the widely accepted science behind global warming and has nominated ardent climate deniers to key environmental positions. Under Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, the White House has reversed regulations to reduce greenhouse gases and put new rules in place to give control of the agency’s science advisory boards to researchers paid by industries. ...
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/science-candidates_us_5a74fffde4b06ee97af2ae60
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #412 on: February 06, 2018, 07:45:44 PM »
Even Republicans questioned her expertise!

White House To Withdraw Controversial Nominee For Top Environmental Post
Quote
A White House official confirms with NPR that Kathleen Hartnett White's controversial nomination to head the Council on Environmental Quality is being withdrawn.

The Washington Post first reported the decision to drop Hartnett White's nomination. Citing anonymous administration officials, the Post says Harnett's nomination couldn't win enough favorable support, "with some Senate Republicans raising questions about her expertise." ...
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/04/583069522/reports-white-house-to-withdraw-controversial-nominee-for-top-environmental-post
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #413 on: February 12, 2018, 02:49:21 PM »
”More environmental regulations have been targeted for rollback than in any other sector.”

Trump’s EPA Chief is Reshaping Food and Farming: What You Need to Know
The legendarily anti-EPA Scott Pruitt is trying to undo the agency’s work through rollbacks, inaction, and decimating its workforce.
https://civileats.com/2018/02/05/trumps-epa-chief-is-reshaping-food-and-farming-what-you-need-to-know/
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gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #414 on: February 15, 2018, 12:06:35 AM »
At last, something it looks like Trumpistan has failed to stop (so far).

Space lasers to track Earth's ice
Grace Follow-On and IceSat-2.

Quote
The former is the successor to the highly successful US-German gravity spacecraft that operated from 2002 to 2017. It's from the first Grace mission's observations, for example, that we know Greenland is currently losing about 280 billion tonnes of ice to the ocean every year. Grace Follow-On will work in the same way as its predecessor did, but it will also demonstrate a laser range-finder. "It's a first in space, and it allows us to do the ranging with much higher precision - a factor of 10 to 20 times better," says US space agency (Nasa) deputy project scientist Felix Landerer. "So, we go from that human hair thickness down to the scale of large viruses."

With luck the GRACE Follow-On satellites go up next month. Maybe new data starting late this year?
I had a look at the data from the last mission that lasted until the beginning of 2017. Didn't Trump say the ice-caps were growing?

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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #415 on: March 07, 2018, 05:25:57 PM »
GOP Pushes 80 Anti-Environment Riders, Dark Money Rule Changes in Spending Bill
Quote
Congressional Republicans are planning a two-fisted assault on climate and other environmental policies as they push a must-pass spending package for the current fiscal year, which is already half over.

In a perennial ritual on Capitol Hill, they have laden the legislation with anti-environment riders. At the same time, they are pushing provisions this year that could turn on the spigots for a new flow of dark money into elections, according to a coalition of public interest groups and Democratic lawmakers.
...
More than 80 anti-environmental-policy riders are included in either the House-passed version of the new appropriations bill or in the Senate drafts this year, said Trip Van Noppen, president of Earthjustice. They include 12 riders to block enforcement of the Endangered Species Act, including protection of the Sage Grouse, whose numbers are dwindling across 11 western states, where habitat protection interferes with mining and oil and gas activities.

One rider would prohibit implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency's stringent ozone standard—a rule that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has repeatedly sought to delay.

Congressional Republicans are also seeking to include provisions that would make it more difficult in the future to tighten air quality standards for ozone, more commonly known as smog. Ozone, a product of fossil fuel pollution, is one of the most thoroughly studied pollutants; the Obama administration's assessment of the science cited 2,300 studies that establish the threat it poses to health ...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01032018/spending-bill-riders-environment-climate-dark-money-campaign-finance-political-donations
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #416 on: March 10, 2018, 03:53:36 PM »
“Red team, blue team” debate nixed.

The E.P.A Chief Wanted a Climate Science Debate. Trump’s Chief of Staff Stopped Him.
Quote
John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has killed an effort by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency to stage public debates challenging climate change science, according to three people familiar with the deliberations, thwarting a plan that had intrigued President Trump even as it set off alarm bells among his top advisers.

The idea of publicly critiquing climate change on the national stage has been a notable theme for Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the E.P.A. For nearly a year he has championed the notion of holding military-style exercises known as red team, blue team debates, possibly to be broadcast live, to question the validity of climate change.

Mr. Pruitt has spoken personally with Mr. Trump about the idea, and the president expressed enthusiasm for it, according to people familiar with the conversations.

But the plan encountered widespread resistance within the administration from Mr. Kelly and other top officials, who regarded it as ill-conceived and politically risky, and when Mr. Pruitt sought to announce it last fall, they weighed in to stop him. At a mid-December meeting set up by Mr. Kelly’s deputy, Rick Dearborn, to discuss the plan, Mr. Dearborn made it clear that his boss considered the idea “dead,” and not to be discussed further, according to people familiar with the meeting. ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/climate/pruitt-red-team-climate-debate-kelly.html
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Archimid

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #417 on: March 10, 2018, 04:59:17 PM »
I don't believe it was nixed because of that. It was nixed because it was a spectacle. They couldn't find scientist with enough clout to win. The only way their color could have won has by doing a televised debate with the substance of Presidential debates.

The whole Kelly thing is the "enemy of my enemy" ruse they want to make us believe.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #418 on: March 13, 2018, 05:11:41 PM »
“That feeling when the president finds someone even worse than the former CEO of Exxon to serve as your country's chief diplomat.

Good chance that Pompeo will seek to flat-out destroy global action on climate change.”
    https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/973591063989538816


Quote
Mike Pompeo may be the first climate-denying secretary of state. Outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of Exxon Mobil, was well-known for clashing with President Donald Trump on the issue of climate change. Unlike Trump, who claims global warming is a “hoax,” Tillerson accepted climate science and advocated for remaining in the Paris climate agreement. Trump defied Tillerson, announcing in June that the U.S. would withdraw from the accord.

Trump’s new choice for secretary of state, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, is more likeminded on the issue. During his confirmation hearing last year, Pompeo refused to answer questions regarding climate change. “Frankly, as the director of CIA, I would prefer today not to get into the details of the climate debate and science,” he said. But as ThinkProgress reported last year, Pompeo’s past statements indicate unfounded skepticism of the science....
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/147439/mike-pompeo-may-first-climate-denying-secretary-state
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gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #419 on: March 24, 2018, 03:22:45 PM »
Some good news and some news not as bad as it could be. It seems in the rush to approve the 2018 Budget the 1.3 trillion has got some good stuff for science. Anybody told Trumpo yet?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-science-agencies-set-to-win-big-in-budget-deal/

This is worth doing a Buddy on font size:
U.S. Science Agencies Set to Win Big in Budget Deal
Congress is preparing to vote on legislation that includes historic $37 billion for the NIH

Quote
Nearly all U.S. science agencies would see their budgets grow in 2018, under a US$1.3-trillion spending deal announced on 21 March. For the second year in a row, lawmakers in Congress appear set to ignore the steep cuts sought by President Donald Trump.

The legislation would boost funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to a historic high of $37 billion, $3 billion over the 2017 level. The National Science Foundation (NSF) would receive $7.8 billion, $295 million more than it received last year. And NASA’s budget would rise to $20.1 billion, an increase of $1.1 billion.

One notable outlier to the overall trend: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Congress has proposed holding the agency’s funding at $8.1 billion, even with the 2017 level. But that may be a victory of sorts, given Trump has proposed slashing EPA funding by more than 30% in 2018, to $5.7 billion.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #420 on: March 26, 2018, 09:59:39 PM »
States threaten to sue Trump EPA for delay in enforcing landfill pollution rule
Quote
Seven Democratic states on Friday threatened to sue the Trump administration for its delay in enforcing an Obama administration rule on air pollution from landfills.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was supposed to, by Nov. 30, approve state plans to comply with the 2016 landfill methane rule or impose federal compliance plans on states that do not comply.

But the agency did not complete that step of the process, which the states say is a violation of the EPA’s responsibilities under the Clean Air Act.

“Climate change is the most important global environmental issue of our time. We must act to address it now for the sake of our children,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D), who is leading the effort, said in a statement.

“EPA Administrator [Scott] Pruitt has a legal responsibility to enforce this critical landfill methane regulation. If he fails to do his job, our coalition is ready to go to court.” ...
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/380008-states-threaten-to-sue-trump-epa-for-delay-in-enforcing-landfill
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #421 on: March 30, 2018, 10:35:37 PM »
Greens launch campaign to get Pruitt fired
Quote
A coalition of environmental groups is teaming up for a multi-pronged campaign to try to get Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt fired or to resign.

The groups, including the Sierra Club, Green For All and Center for American Progress Action, are dubbing its campaign “Boot Pruitt.”

Its components, launching Wednesday, include commercials on cable shows targeted directly at President Trump, digital advertisements targeted on users in Pruitt’s home state of Oklahoma, web-based petitions, grass-roots advocacy and a dedicated website, BootPruitt.com. ...
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/380551-greens-launch-campaign-to-get-pruitt-fired
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #422 on: April 01, 2018, 09:33:47 PM »
Trump wanted to slash funding for clean energy. Congress ignored him.
The omnibus spending bill contains funding increases for clean energy research.
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/energy-and-environment/2018/3/22/17151352/omnibus-energy-environment-trump
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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #423 on: April 22, 2018, 12:20:15 AM »
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/trump-s-epa-wants-stamp-out-secret-science-internal-emails-show-it-harder-expected

"This idea to restrict the use of science at EPA was hatched solely and worked on almost exclusively by political appointees who are doing everything they can to ensure that independent science doesn't get in the way of policy decisions at the agency. It's an effort to stack the deck in favor of industry that EPA is supposed to regulate."
Yogin Kothari, Union of Concerned Scientists

"Nancy Beck, deputy assistant administrator of EPA's chemicals office, raised pointed concerns about what a secret science policy would mean for both pesticide registration and for chemical companies and regulating chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
In an email sent on Jan. 31, Beck warned Yamada; Erik Baptist, EPA's senior deputy general counsel; and Justin Schwab, deputy general counsel, that requiring underlying data to be public would affect pesticide registrations and TSCA implementation."

"Richard Denison, a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, noted that EPA staff and members of Congress had previously objected to Smith's "Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act" — the basis for the potential EPA policy — for the data collection burden it would put on researchers, who would have to go back and identify which data could be made public.
Critics also warned at the time that the impact would be to significantly reduce the number of studies that could be used to develop regulations, and many suspected this was the real purpose of the bill."

bluesky

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #424 on: April 22, 2018, 12:27:53 AM »
Trump administration takes first steps toward drilling in Alaska’s Arctic refuge

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/trump-administration-takes-first-steps-toward-drilling-alaska-s-arctic-refuge


"By putting the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the hands of former oil industry lobbyist David Bernhardt, Secretary Zinke has made clear that this rushed environmental review process will be nothing more than a kangaroo court," Matt Lee-Ashley, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.
Environmental groups told the Trump administration to brace for a legal battle.
"The Trump administration's reckless dash to expedite drilling and destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will only hasten a trip to the courthouse," Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. "We will not stand by and watch them desecrate this fragile landscape."
Lawmakers responded largely along party lines.
"We welcome this scoping announcement and the Department’s continued work to implement our legislation opening the Coastal Plain to responsible energy development," Alaska's congressional delegation, all Republicans, said in a joint statement. "We appreciate the Department following the law, planning multiple public meetings with Alaskans, and moving forward on this important program to help ensure the energy and economic security of our nation."
House Natural Resources ranking member Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and eight Democratic colleagues today sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke objecting to the "needless haste" toward leasing in ANWR.
"This administration's naked greed and corporate favoritism have become an ongoing self-parody," Grijalva said in a statement. "This is the kind of rushed policy that gets made during a backroom deal, not a careful assessment of public opinion and scientific data. President Trump and Secretary Zinke count drilling in the Arctic Refuge as a win because it upsets Americans they don't like, not because it will have any public benefit."

gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #425 on: April 23, 2018, 02:36:33 PM »
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/apr/23/pruitt-promised-polluters-epa-will-value-their-profits-over-american-lives

TIME magazine announced last week that Trump’s EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is among their 100 most influential people of 2018. George W. Bush’s former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman delivered the scathing explanation:

If his actions continue in the same direction, during Pruitt’s term at the EPA the environment will be threatened instead of protected, and human health endangered instead of preserved, all with no long-term benefit to the economy.

As a perfect example of those actions, the Daily Caller recently reported that at a gathering at the fossil fuel-funded Heritage Institute, Pruitt announced that the EPA and federal government will soon end two important science-based practices in evaluating the costs and benefits of regulations........

.........Environmental groups are ready to take Pruitt to court
Pruitt hasn’t yet made good on these promises to the polluting industries, but if he does, environmental groups are confident they can beat him in court. David Doniger, senior strategic director of the National Resource Defense Council’s climate & clean energy program told me:

If Pruitt finalizes the Clean Power Plan repeal or any other rule by revising consideration of co-benefits in this way, or dropping them entirely, you can be 100% sure that we and others will sue, probably in D.C. Circuit challenges to his actions. We are confident the courts will hold this reversal of practice arbitrary and capricious. The only sound way to assess the benefits of a rule, and to weigh them against costs when that is allowed, is to assess all the benefits that can be reasonably expected to come from the action.

It’s worth remembering that “The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment.” The mission of the Pruitt EPA seems to be maximizing polluting industry profits at the expense of human health and the environment.

"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #426 on: April 29, 2018, 11:00:22 AM »
I find it disturbing that Jim Bridenstine (who is cut from the same cloth as James Inhofe & Scott Pruitt) has just been confirmed as NASA's Administrator:

Title: "The Boys from Tulsa/Weekend Reader for Sunday, April 29"

http://www.dailyclimate.org/the-boys-from-tulsa-weekend-reader-for-sunday-april-29-2564190102.html

Extract: "A trio of regulation-hatin', climate-denyin' desperadoes from Tulsa are taking Washington by storm."
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #427 on: May 11, 2018, 07:52:16 PM »
Sad!

Title: "Climate Science-Denying Trump Regime Silently Killed NASA Carbon Monitoring System"

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/climate-science-denying-trump-regime-silently-killed-nasa-carbon-monitoring-system
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TerryM

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #428 on: May 11, 2018, 11:02:18 PM »
With those pesky snoops at NASA out of the way, what do you bet that Trump's America now does better than all those nations still tied to their stupid Paris Pledges. :(


Making America Green Again!

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #429 on: May 12, 2018, 11:01:44 PM »
With those pesky snoops at NASA out of the way, what do you bet that Trump's America now does better than all those nations still tied to their stupid Paris Pledges. :(

Making America Green Again!
Terry

sometimes i'd like to be a wizzard: POOF > GONE for good ;) (donald the duck i mean or is that too much of a compliment, at least donald duck was a nice and friendly guy ;) )

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #430 on: May 24, 2018, 08:36:48 PM »
A NASA climate program in limbo

[caption, image removed: A NASA spokesman said the agency’s Carbon Monitoring System — only a small part of an array of earth science programs like the Grace-FO satellites that launched Tuesday — needs to be explicitly appropriated for in Congressional budgets.]

John Schwartz, the author, is one of the best.

Quote
The Trump administration appears to be trying to kill off a program that you may have never heard of, in what critics say is a sign of the administration’s hostility toward climate science.

At $10 million per year, the Carbon Monitoring System is dwarfed by the multibillion-dollar NASA missions that launch satellites into space. It pays for research that gathers information from Earth-observing satellites and other tools to measure the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, oceans and forests around the world.

“If you wanted to mitigate climate change, and therefore wanted to manage carbon, you can’t do it unless you can measure it,” said George Hurtt, a researcher at the University of Maryland who was the science team leader for the program.

Philip B. Duffy, the president and executive director of the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, said canceling the program would be “a blow to climate science.” The 65 projects funded by the program have produced nearly 300 research papers since 2010, when Congress created it.

The move comes down to politics, said Eddie Bernice Johnson, Democrat of Texas, who serves as ranking member of the House science committee. “I think it’s obvious to anyone that has been paying attention that this program is being canceled because it tracks carbon pollution, and that information would be used in efforts to understand and respond to climate change,” she said.

The program’s uncertain future was first reported in the journal Science.

The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2018 budget called for the program’s end, but Congress provided adequate funding in its omnibus spending bill. That funding would usually mean that the program would continue, but NASA appears to have interpreted things differently.

Stephen E. Cole, an agency spokesman, said Congress needed to provide explicit language to keep the program in place. Mr. Cole added that the Carbon Monitoring System was only one small part of a well-funded array of earth science programs at the agency, including the twin Grace-FO satellites that the agency launched on Tuesday to monitor how water moves around the earth. “There is still a whole lot going on,” he said.

The program may yet survive. This month Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida and ranking member of the Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation, wrote a letter to two committee chairmen demanding that funding be restored. Expressing “deep concern,” he called the program “a relatively small investment that gives researchers the tools to analyze data and observations from across NASA’s Earth science missions.”

Last week the House Appropriations Committee passed an amendment that would restore funding to the program. If a similar measure passes the Senate, the Carbon Monitoring System could be saved.

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #431 on: July 06, 2018, 06:43:31 PM »
After several months of the torch of public attention, Scott Pruitt has finally melted. Global slime levels rose perceptibly. Good riddance.

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #432 on: July 07, 2018, 12:50:06 AM »
After several months of the torch of public attention, Scott Pruitt has finally melted. Global slime levels rose perceptibly. Good riddance.

His replacement, Wheeler, is worse. Same ideology, lobbyist for coal, buddy with Inhofe, much more presentable, won't tick all the boxes for corruption. Like Pence, he will do more harm than the original.

6roucho

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #433 on: July 09, 2018, 05:46:34 AM »
After several months of the torch of public attention, Scott Pruitt has finally melted. Global slime levels rose perceptibly. Good riddance.

His replacement, Wheeler, is worse. Same ideology, lobbyist for coal, buddy with Inhofe, much more presentable, won't tick all the boxes for corruption. Like Pence, he will do more harm than the original.

It’s like the sea. We need a sea change, where science becomes important to leaders again.

gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #434 on: August 12, 2018, 08:22:04 PM »
Neither stakes through the heart nor a fusillade of silver bullets can do for the Heartland Institute now their "new best friend" is El Presidente, USA.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climatechange/at-america-first-energy-conference-solar-power-is-dumb-climate-change-is-fake-idUSKBN1KU1Y1

At 'America First Energy Conference',
solar power is dumb, climate change is fake


Quote
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Pumping carbon dioxide into the air makes the planet greener; the United Nations puts out fake science about climate change to control the global energy market; and wind and solar energy are simply “dumb”.

These are among the messages that flowed from the America First Energy Conference in New Orleans this week, hosted by some of the country’s most vocal climate change doubters - and attended by a handful of Trump administration officials.

The second annual conference, organized by the conservative thinktank the Heartland Institute, pulled together speakers from JunkScience, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, and the Center For Industrial Progress, along with officials from the U.S. Department of Interior and the White House for panels that included: “Carbon Taxes, Cap & Trade, and Other Bad Ideas,” “Fiduciary Malpractice: The Sustainable Investment Movement,” and “Why CO2 Emissions Are Not Creating A Climate Crisis.”

The U.S. officials who joined included White House Special Assistant Brooke Rollins, Interior Department Assistant Secretary Joe Balash, and Jason Funes, an assistant in the office of external affairs at Interior. They praised the administration’s moves to clear the way for oil industry activity, and steered clear of commenting on climate change.

But their presence gave climate change doubters at the conference a boost: “It’s a step in the right direction,” said self-described climate change doubter Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama, referring to the U.S. officials in attendance.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #435 on: August 16, 2018, 06:27:15 PM »
Needless to say, the Trump Administration continues to deny the scientific consensus regarding mankind's role in causing climate change:

Title: "Ryan Zinke says human role in climate change is unknown"

https://www.axios.com/ryan-zinke-inaccurately-summarizes-climate-science-4eccdd95-9c8b-44b7-9caf-2c0e19effdc3.html

Extract: "During an appearance on Fox Business on Thursday morning, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke broke sharply with the scientific consensus regarding mankind's role in climate change."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
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gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #436 on: August 18, 2018, 08:07:14 PM »
Ryan Zinke is doing a lot of damage one way or another.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/17/interior-secretarys-school-friend-crippling-climate-research-scientists-say
US interior secretary's school friend blocking climate research, scientists say
Trump administration forces some scientific funding to be reviewed by adviser who was high-school football teammate of Ryan Zinke

Quote
Prominent US climate scientists have told the Guardian that the Trump administration is holding up research funding as their projects undergo an unprecedented political review by the high-school football teammate of the US interior secretary.

The US interior department administers over $5.5bn in funding to external organizations, mostly for research, conservation and land acquisition. At the beginning of 2018, interior secretary Ryan Zinke instated a new requirement that scientific funding above $50,000 must undergo an additional review to ensure expenditures “better align with the administration’s priorities”.

Zinke has signaled that climate change is not one of those priorities: this week, he told Breitbart News that “environmental terrorist groups” were responsible for the ongoing wildfires in northern California and, ignoring scientific research on the issue, dismissed the role of climate change.

Steve Howke, one of Zinke’s high-school football teammates, oversees this review. Howke’s highest degree is a bachelor’s in business administration. Until Zinke appointed him as an interior department senior adviser to the acting assistant secretary of policy, management and budget, Howke had spent his entire career working in credit unions.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
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pileus

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #437 on: August 20, 2018, 02:15:41 AM »
Congrats to those who thought this was the least destructive binary choice in 2016.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/new-trump-power-plant-plan-would-release-hundreds-of-millions-of-tons-of-co2-into-the-air/2018/08/18/be823078-a28e-11e8-83d2-70203b8d7b44_story.html?utm_term=.21d465d95d27

New Trump power plant plan would release hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 into the air

gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #438 on: August 20, 2018, 01:49:47 PM »
Congrats to those who thought this was the least destructive binary choice in 2016.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/new-trump-power-plant-plan-would-release-hundreds-of-millions-of-tons-of-co2-into-the-air/2018/08/18/be823078-a28e-11e8-83d2-70203b8d7b44_story.html?utm_term=.21d465d95d27

New Trump power plant plan would release hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 into the air

Bunch of wimps in the EPA. Why not go all the way - regulate maximum vehicle efficiency, e.g. prohibit the manufacture or sale of personal vehicles that are rated at above 15 miles per US gallon.

Hoo ah! Bring it on !
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
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SteveMDFP

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #439 on: August 20, 2018, 06:13:23 PM »

Bunch of wimps in the EPA. Why not go all the way - regulate maximum vehicle efficiency, e.g. prohibit the manufacture or sale of personal vehicles that are rated at above 15 miles per US gallon.

Shhh!!!!!  Don't give them any ideas.  With this administration, they might just take you up on this proposal.

Rob Dekker

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #440 on: September 15, 2018, 05:21:28 AM »
Fed-up with Trump cutting federal funding for scientific climate research and earth observing satellite programs, Governor Brown of California announced its own program :

Quote
The governor’s Global Climate Action Summit — and the Trump administration’s reluctance to pursue robust climate research – opened the door wide open for the governor to pull the satellite vision out of the archives.

“With science still under attack and the climate threat growing, we’re launching our own damn satellite,” Brown said in prepared remarks.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-global-climate-summit-live-updates-we-re-launching-our-own-damn-satellite-1536957076-htmlstory.html

Hat tip to Juan García at the Cafe.
This is our planet. This is our time.
Let's not waste either.

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #441 on: October 12, 2018, 08:59:27 PM »
EPA Search for Pruitt-Cited Climate Studies Comes Up Dry

Quote
Nineteen months after it received a nonprofit’s Freedom of Information Act request, the Environmental Protection Agency has responded with a small batch of documents that seem to undercut former Administrator Scott Pruitt’s hint of internal agency studies concluding that scientists are undecided about the human impact on climate change.

Documents posted on Thursday by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility show that the agency conducted a:
Quote
multi-month search for any evidence contradicting the proposition that human activity is the primary driver of climate change and now admits that it has found virtually nothing of substance,”
as summarized by the nonprofit’s attorney.
Quote
... “Of the 1,037 Outlook records that EPA reviewed 11 were responsive to PEER's request, as clarified. All 11 records were different versions of the same document. The document included EPA's responses to multiple Questions for the Record that EPA received from members of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works following Administrator Pruitt's testimony in front of the Committee on January 30, 2018. Today, EPA is releasing the final version of that document that was sent to Congress."
The result, PEER noted, is a single noteworthy official document, which was not scientific research but correspondence with a Senate panel.
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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #442 on: October 16, 2018, 02:34:43 AM »
This is one of Trump’s vocal cheerleaders, sharing his thoughts on the cryosphere.

DrTskoul

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #443 on: October 16, 2018, 04:51:48 AM »
This is one of Trump’s vocal cheerleaders, sharing his thoughts on the cryosphere.

Doh! The stupid, it burns ...

gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #444 on: October 16, 2018, 10:38:08 AM »
This is one of Trump’s vocal cheerleaders, sharing his thoughts on the cryosphere.

Doh! The stupid, it burns ...

A Eureka moment for Bill Mitchell!

Did Archimedes some 2250+ years ago have problems explaining the science of buoyancy to the Greek politicians?

Bill Mitchell has a BA in Political Science. Science? - who's kidding who.

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"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #445 on: October 16, 2018, 09:01:05 PM »
This is one of Trump’s vocal cheerleaders, sharing his thoughts on the cryosphere.

sigh.... like "belgium ‘a beautiful city"  ::)  :'(

and then no-one who is serious would ever say that sea-ice is responsible for sea-level-rise but land-ice is, hence even without the error it's meant/intended to be a deceptive post, that's the way they abuse social media day by day.

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #446 on: October 19, 2018, 05:03:56 PM »
Silencing Science Tracker

Trump EPA Disbands Science Panel On Air Pollution

Quote


11 October 2018 (Silencing Science Tracker) – On 11 October 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) disbanded the particulate matter (PM) review panel.

In the past, the panel has provided advice to EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), which is responsible for reviewing the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for criteria pollutants.

Under the Clean Air Act, CASAC is required to periodically review the NAAQS, and recommend appropriate changes thereto to protect public health. When reviewing the NAAQS for PM, CASAC has historically relied on advice from the PM review panel, which is comprised of two dozen university researchers and others with special expertise on the health effects of PM. The panel will not, however, have a role in CASAC’s next review.
Quote
On 11 October 2018, EPA sent an email to panel members, informing them that “the CASAC PM Review Panel will no longer be involved with the Agency’s PM NAAQS Review and your service on the panel has concluded.”

EPA’s Office of the Science Advisor to be Closed

Quote
On September 27, 2018, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to close its Office of the Science Advisor. The office, which was established in the mid-1990s, provides scientific advice to the EPA Administrator. According to its website, the office also leads “science policy development and implementation” at EPA, with the goal of “ensur[ing] that the highest quality science is better integrated into the Agency’s policies and decisions.”

The Office of Science Advisor is currently led by Dr. Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, who serves as EPA’s Science Advisor, and chairs the Agency’s Science and Technology Policy Council. Dr. Orme-Zavaleta has worked at EPA for 37 years and is described on its website as an expert in “the evaluation of risks to human health” from “synthetic organic and inorganic chemicals, radionuclides, microorganisms, and vector-borne disease.” It is unclear whether Dr. Orme-Zavaleta will remain at EPA after the Office of Science Advisor is closed.

Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Stop Teenagers' Climate Lawsuit

Quote
President Donald Trump's administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court stop a novel and sweeping lawsuit pressed by children and teenagers seeking to force the federal government to take steps against climate change

Thursday's emergency filing aims to head off a trial that's set to start Oct. 29 in federal court in Oregon. It's the administration's second attempt to have the nation's highest court intervene in the case.

Although the Supreme Court rejected the first request in July as premature, the justices hinted at skepticism about the lawsuit, saying its breadth was "striking." Since that order was issued, the Senate has confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh to succeed the retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Trump's EPA Moving to Loosen Radiation Limits

Quote
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is quietly moving to weaken U.S. radiation regulations, turning to scientific outliers who argue that a bit of radiation damage is actually good for you — like a little bit of sunlight.

The government's current, decades-old guidance says that any exposure to harmful radiation is a cancer risk. And critics say the proposed change could lead to higher levels of exposure for workers at nuclear installations and oil and gas drilling sites, medical workers doing X-rays and CT scans, people living next to Superfund sites and any members of the public who one day might find themselves exposed to a radiation release.

EPA 'Expert': A Little Bit of Radiation Is Good for You - Like a Little Bit of Sunshine

Quote

What's a little fallout, huh? Have a nice day!

The Environmental Protection Agency has recruited controversial scientists to argue that just a little bit of radiation may actually be good for public health, in an attempt to relax standards on radiation levels that the administration considers burdensome.

The Associated Press reports that at a congressional hearing Wednesday to discuss the proposed rollback of standards, the EPA’s lead witness will be University of Massachusetts toxicologist Edward Calabrese, who believes that increased exposure to small amounts of radiation “would have a positive effect on human health as well as save billions and billions and billions of dollars.”
Quote
100 mSv is 100 x more public exposure than the 1 mSv recommended internationally by the ICRP and 400 x more than the 0.25 mSv recommended by the US EPA.
Calabrese argues that radiation can act as a stressor, which will activate the body’s repair mechanisms. But other scientists have refuted the EPA’s argument, noting that Calabrese’s reasoning has been “generally dismissed by the great bulk of scientists.”

The proposal has also concerned advocates for worker safety, who fear that relaxing standards will jeopardize the health of nuclear-plant workers, X-ray technicians, and anyone else unlucky enough to come into contact with radiation. “There’s no reason not to protect people as much as possible,” said the wife of a man who works at a nuclear-weapons plant.
Edward Calabrese - Cato Institute Profile  - Funded by the Cato Institute & DoD
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Sigmetnow

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #447 on: November 11, 2018, 09:11:08 PM »
Democrats won the majority of the House in the mid-term elections last Tuesday, which means they will take over the leadership of House committees.  Scientists and climate-change believers are coming on board!

House Dems plan to bring back committee on climate change
Quote
Democrats are reportedly planning to revive a House committee on climate change after winning back control of the House.

The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming was dissolved by Republicans in 2011 after the GOP took control, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will ask Democrats to reconstitute it, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The special committee, which was started by Pelosi, was not authorized to advance legislation, but the panel held hearings to address concerns about climate change, extreme weather events and global warming.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/415723-house-dems-plan-to-bring-back-committee-on-climate-change

All eyes on top Democrat to bring science back to science committee
Quote
Environmentalists are hoping that Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) will bring science back to the House science committee when she takes over as chair in the next Congress.

Johnson, if elected chair, will be the first woman with a degree in a STEM field to hold the position since 1990. She was the first registered nurse elected to Congress when she won her first term in 1993, and she’s served as ranking member on House Science, Space and Technology Committee since 2011.

The Democrat will represent a significant shift from the previous chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas).

Smith introduced controversial bills including the Secret Science Reform Act and worked in tandem with the Trump administration to introduce heavily criticized policies on science transparency to the Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/415589-all-eyes-on-top-democrat-to-bring-science-back-to-science-committee

Congress gains an influx of scientists as GOP science committee head leaves
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/10/congress-gains-scientists-lawmakers-midterm-elections
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #448 on: November 12, 2018, 03:29:43 AM »
Trumpistan science committee reports:"it looks like we cannot anymore be sure of anything, a disruptive force is entering the science committee. This force believes in, as they call it, probabilistic sciences (cussem), like weather and drifts, can you beleive it? Thus we can't guarantee only steady reports of absolute stability, immobility, perfect vacuums, absolute zeros and prime movers. The development of The Universal Medicine may be hampered, as well as building a way (so called stairway) to the gods realm (sky, heaven). Proper science-people out there in Trumpistan, these are trying times, keep on praying they see the truth."
« Last Edit: November 12, 2018, 06:42:27 AM by Pmt111500 »

Pmt111500

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #449 on: November 20, 2018, 06:47:39 AM »
Industry infiltration to environmental regulations body, destruction of biodiversity and the plan to poison US citizens continues: https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/11/16/trump-plans-nominate-andrew-wheeler-former-coal-lobbyist-permanent-epa-chief/?utm_term=.9951894efc08