March 23, 2020

Ann Mesnikoff

During Public Health Crisis, Trump Admin. Continues Attacks on Public Health Studies

In the midst of our country’s public health crisis, the Trump Administration’s EPA continues to advance a dangerous policy that ignores science and public health studies.

While you’re doing your part social-distancing at home, the EPA is making moves that put our long-term public health even further at risk.

The EPA has issued a supplemental version of its proposal to censor the science it uses in setting public health safeguards for clean air, water and more. This supplemental version of the “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science” proposal is substantially different from the deeply flawed 2018 proposal. In a moment in which EVERY American and public health professional is focused on this global pandemic and watching our economy collapse, EPA is only providing a curtailed 30-day comment period. This is untenable under any circumstances, and even more so as the public faces the enormous COVID-19 crisis.

Last week ELPC sent a letter calling on the EPA for an extended comment period and to host virtual hearings that include both the option for video conferencing and call in. Unsurprisingly, we received the following terse response “Thank you for your message. At this time, the Agency does not intend to issue an extension to the comment period.”

That’s not good enough. So we went back to the EPA again, this time with support from nearly 50 different organizations across the Great Lakes.

To fulfill its statutory mandates and responsibility to protect the public health, EPA should rely upon the best available science not constrain the studies and science it will consider. The COVID-19 crisis has shown us the dire consequences of ignoring experts and science. We won’t let the administration get away with this reckless proposal.

Learn more about the EPA’s full proposal in my previous blog.