EPA Enacts Rule Allowing Ignoring of Science to End Environmental Protections

Andrew Wheeler took over somewhat quietly for Scott Pruitt and in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency.  He loves erasing PROTECTION of the ENVIRONMENT it from existence.  He's been attacking our environment and our future in hundreds of very meaningful ways.  

The Trump administration is preparing to significantly limit the scientific and medical research that the government can use to determine public health regulations, overriding protests from scientists and physicians who say the new rule would undermine the scientific underpinnings of government policymaking.

The change is part of a broader administration effort to weaken the scientific underpinnings of policymaking. Senior administration officials have tried to water down the testimony of government scientists, publicly chastised scientists who have dissented from President Trump’s positions and blocked government researchers from traveling to conferences to present their work.

Here's why this matters very much and is intended to destroy the government's ability to protect us:

The measure would make it more difficult to enact new clean air and water rules because many studies detailing the links between pollution and disease rely on personal health information gathered under confidentiality agreements. And, unlike a version of the proposal that surfaced in early 2018, this one could apply retroactively to public health regulations already in place.

 ....the administration intends to widen its scope, not narrow it.  The previous version of the regulation would have applied only to a certain type of research, “dose-response” studies in which levels of toxicity are studied in animals or humans. The new proposal would require access to the raw data for virtually every study that the E.P.A. considers.

“This means the E.P.A. can justify rolling back rules or failing to update rules based on the best information to protect public health and the environment, which means more dirty air and more premature deaths,” said Paul Billings, senior vice president for advocacy at the American Lung Association.

Public health experts warned that studies that have been used for decades — to show, for example, that mercury from power plants impairs brain development, or that lead in paint dust is tied to behavioral disorders in children — might be inadmissible when existing regulations come up for renewal.

Sources: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/climate/epa-science-trump.html

http://smartdissent.com/article/scott-pruitt-signs-rule-limiting-what-science-epa-can-use