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“It’s quite sad what’s happened to
science at EPA. It’s very shortsighted.”
gives them the green light. This practice, according
to Grifo, is tantamount to undocumented
political vetting of scientists’ work.
“Let’s not pick and choose the politically
correct piece of information that can
be presented” at scientific meetings, Grifo
says. Instead, the presumption should
be that scientists will be cleared to go to
a meeting once they submit the required
paper work. If they’re denied clearance,
the scientists should get a signed, written
explanation, even if the request is simply to
attend a meeting and not present research
results, she says.
IN ADDITION, Grifo says EPA should
adopt a publication policy that prevents
what she calls “excess review” of papers
that agency scientists wish to submit for
publication. These reviews, she contends,
become tinged with politics because
agency higher-ups can delay publication of
controversial results. But because taxpayer
dollars paid for the research, the results
should be made public, she says.
Grifo’s request for a more open publication
policy appears to have the support of
the incoming president. Before his election,
Obama signaled that his EPA officials
would not constrain agency scientists.
“In an Obama Administration, the principle
of scientific integrity will be an absolute,
and I will never sanction any attempt to subvert
the work of scientists,” Obama wrote
in an Oct. 20 letter to John Gage, national
president of the American Federation of
Government Employees, one of the unions
that represent EPA employees. “I strongly
oppose attempts by the Bush Administration
to thwart publication of EPA researchers’
scientific findings,” Obama wrote.
Grifo urges the president-elect to go
even further to ensure all EPA scientists’
voices get heard. For instance, after EPA
settles on a final regulation for, say, air
or water pollution standards, the agency
should make publicly available the views of
its scientists who dissent with its managers’
policy choice, she suggests. “Americans
are smart enough to understand that
scientists disagree,” she says.
And the agency needs to create a standard
news media policy for EPA scientists,
Grifo says, to protect what she calls
“scientific speech.” This would allow
them to speak publicly as private citizens,
rather than as EPA employees, about their
research and expertise. Also, any news release
from EPA that is substantively based
on the work of an agency scientist should
be reviewed by that scientist before it is
made public, she adds.
Any modifications the Obama Administration
makes to the science programs
at EPA will unfold over the next year or
so, beginning with the president-elect’s
selection for the agency’s administrator.
And because Obama ran on a platform
of change, shifts may well be in store
throughout the government, including
EPA’s science efforts. ■
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WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 32 NOVEMBER 24, 2008