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Dravis, Samantha[dravis.samantha@epa.gov] POLITICO Pro Energy Whiteboard Tue 10/31/2017 7:09:58 PM Pruitt bars EPA grant recipients from advisory positions
By Emily Holden
10/31/2017 03:06 PM EDT
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt officially announced today he will bar scientists who receive agency grants from serving on EPA advisory boards, a move he said was designed to preserve the EPA's scientific integrity.
Pruitt's move will force some current scientific advisers to either give up funding or resign their board positions. Other open seats on the Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee are being filled by employees of fossil fuel and chemicals industries or red state environmental offices, according to an unconfirmed list of new appointees. The changes also affect the Board of Scientific Counselors, EPA said in a press release.
Pruitt announced new chairs of the three boards but said he will make other new members public in the next week.
Michael Honeycutt, of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, will head SAB, while Tony Cox, a statistician from Cox Associates, will head CASAC, which is required by law to suggest air quality limits based on science. Paul Gilman, chief sustainability officer at Covanta and a former EPA official under President George W. Bush, will head the BOSC.
Current members who may lose their spots say the changes are meant to stack the boards with industry-financed individuals who support Pruitt's deregulatory efforts. John Walke, senior attorney and clean air director for the Natural Resources Defense Council said the biggest credential Cox has is "a very, very public record of testifying against public air quality standards."
Pruitt said that current members of the committees received $77 million from EPA grants.
The announcement came with a memo and draft directive.
To view online'. https://www.politicopro,com/energy/whiteboard/201 7/10/nruitt-bars-epa-grant-recipients-fromadvisory-positions-094992
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Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906
ED_001523_00006133-00001
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Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906
ED_001523_00006133-00002