Montana Governor Signs Bill Banning State Agencies From Analyzing Climate Impacts: https://www.ecowatch.com/montana-governor-climate-impacts-analysis-ban.html
Texas Education Officials Weaken Climate Science in Textbooks: https://www.ecowatch.com/texas-school-board-climate-science.html
This alarming news occurred in 2021: University of Florida researchers destroyed data on COVID-19 to avoid offending Ron DeSantis: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/12/8/2068226/-Florida-academics-live-in-fear-of-DeSantis-resulting-in-censored-results-destroyed-data?detail=emaildkre
In July 2021 — during Biden’s tenure — this alarming news came out: EPA scientists allege in letter that the ‘war on science’ has continued under the Biden administration: https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/biden-science/
Trump’s EPA significantly sabotaged honest science. Biden has not done enough to restore scientific integrity and eliminate corruption in the EPA. BOTH Trump and Biden have long histories of subservience to big business. Biden has done a few good things since becoming President, but he has not done anywhere near enough for the good issues. He waters down many of them. In some cases he takes blatant actions to support big business’s interests against ordinary people and against the environment and against the climate.
We need to stop supporting “the lesser evil” and demand very good candidates. Voters must demand political candidates and incumbents protect honest science.
An environmental organization posted this in April 2023:
Restore Scientific Integrity and Eliminate Corruption at EPA
Congress has entrusted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the responsibility to protect the health and environment of the United States. As yet another report of EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG)—this one relating to risk assessment for a PFAS chemical—finds that EPA has failed to abide by its own scientific integrity policy, thereby leaving “the public vulnerable to potential negative impacts on human health,” it becomes urgently necessary to insist on accountability for scientific integrity failures at the agency.
OIG is an independent branch of EPA that can receive complaints of mismanagement, misconduct, abuse of authority, or censorship, including those related to scientific or research misconduct, without fear of improper influence. Through its statutory mandate, OIG investigates these allegations. It makes recommendations based on findings, which it reports to Congress, but it cannot ensure the personal accountability of those responsible for misconduct. In this case, OIG made recommendations relating to strengthening policies and procedures for dealing with scientific data, disagreements, and integrity, and one recommendation “to strengthen the EPA’s culture of scientific integrity, transparency, and accountability of political leadership actions.” EPA disagreed with all five recommendations. If left unresolved, it will be included in OIG’s semiannual report to Congress.
Corruption and lack of scientific integrity are not new issues for EPA. (Other OIG reports also deal with failures of scientific integrity.) Regarding the pesticide program, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Senior Counsel Peter Jenkins stated, “EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs has bent so far over backwards to accommodate industry desires that it is now beyond chiropractic help – major surgery is required,” noting that while problems within OPP worsened under Trump, they preexisted his term and continue today. “Inside OPP, marginalization of science remains cause for celebration and the result has been repeated ecological and public health disasters,” Mr. Jenkins said.
As indicated in the most recent OIG report, problems often arise when scientific professionals are overruled by political appointees. Political appointees—starting with the EPA Administrator—should be held accountable for actions that disregard scientific findings, putting at risk people and the environment. EPA’s failures to take actions recommended by OIG should create a presumption of misconduct of the Administrator and program directors, which should result in initiation of dismissal actions. Congress receives OIG’s annual report, which documents such failures and should trigger oversight hearings if those responsible are not held accountable.
