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Friday, November 21st, 2014

House Republicans just passed a bill forbidding scientists from advising the EPA on their own research

Author:     Lindsay Abrams
Source:     Salon
Publication Date:     Wednesday, Nov 19, 2014 02:15 PM PST
 Link: House Republicans just passed a bill forbidding scientists from advising the EPA on their own research
Stephan:   This is a first indicator of what we can expect from a Republican Congress concerning climate change. It is ironic that a majority of those Red value voters who gave us this moronic delusion Congress live in states whose geography makes them particularly susceptible to the effects of climate change. Here is a prediction: The Blue value states are going to be asked to increasingly underwrite the costs of helping the Red value states recover from the effects of the policies they, the Red value voters, chose.
House Speaker John Boehner Credit: AP/J Scott Applewhite

House Speaker John Boehner
Credit: AP/J Scott Applewhite

Congressional climate wars were dominated Tuesday by the U.S. Senate, which spent the day debating, and ultimately failing to pass, a bill approving the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. While all that was happening, and largely unnoticed, the House was busy doing what it does best: attacking science.

 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.”

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