EPA Science Policy Purged Researchers, Advocates Tell Judge

An EPA policy barring scientists who receive agency grants from providing advice on scientific matters is arbitrary and amounts to a purging of top researchers, a scientists’ group told a federal judge Sept. 14.

The Union of Concerned Scientists challenged the 2017 policy in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, arguing that it “purged eminent scientists” from the Environmental Protection Agency’s advisory boards.

The EPA regularly assembles science advisory boards to guide it in making policy and rules. The boards include people drawn from universities, the government, and industry.

In October 2017, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt