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EPA officials fear being cut off from data
Story Date: 4/23/2018
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Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 4/20/18
As EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt weighs next steps on a scientific transparency directive announced earlier this year -- which is expected to require that the raw data for all studies be publicly available and peer-reviewed - members of Pruitt's staff expressed concern it could block their own use of industry data, Pro Energy's Annie Snider reports.
Emails between EPA officials obtained by the Union of Concerned Scientists show that Nancy Beck, the top political official in the agency's chemicals office, voiced concerns after she received a draft of the not-yet-released policy on Jan. 31.
Chemicals and pesticides at issue: The directive in question has origins in legislation introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith during the Obama administration, but its requirements would exclude a lot of data about pesticides and toxic chemicals that Beck's office examines when determining whether a substance is safe or must be restricted.
"These data will be extremely valuable, extremely high quality, and NOT published," Beck wrote in an email to an official in EPA's office of research and development. "The directive needs to be revised."
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