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To: From: Sent: Subject: Myron EbellfMyron.Ebell@cei.org] Myron Ebeil Tue 11/7/2017 2:56:32 PM Cooler Heads Coalition next meeting Monday, 13th November, noon at CEI The Cooler Heads Coalition will hold its next regular monthly strategy meeting beginning at 12 noon on Monday, 13th November, at CEI, 1310 L Street, N. W., Seventh Floor. Please e-mail me with agenda items or questions. Two items on the agenda are summarized briefly in the two articles pasted below from last Friday's Cooler Heads Digest. I have added links to some other items of interest below that. Pruitt Reforms EPA's Scientific Advisory Boards Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt accomplished major changes to the conflict-of-interest standards for members of the EPA's scientific advisory boards in a directive issued 31st October. In addition, he appointed a number of new members to three of the most important of the agency's boards. The directive seeks "to ensure that any advisors serving on an EPA Federal Advisory Committee (FAC) are independent and free from any real, apparent, or potential interference with their ability to objectively serve as a committee member." The biggest change requires that "that no member of any of EPA's federal advisory committees be currently in receipt of EPA grants, either as principal investigator or co-investigator, or in a position that otherwise would reap substantial direct benefit from an EPA grant." It seems obvious that advisers can hardly be expected to give objective advice if they are financially beholden to the institution they are advising, but EPA's advisory boards have been stacked with university scientists whose research programs receive millions of dollars of EPA grants. Is it a surprise that they give the advice EPA wants to hear? As my CEI colleague William Yeatman notes. Senator James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), then chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, sent a letter to the EPA in 2016 that complained about the fact that six of the seven members appointed to the highly influential Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) during the Obama Administration had received over $119 million in EPA grants. William also references a letter from Representative Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, that noted that the "CASAC 17cv1906 Sierra Club v. EPA - 6/22 Production ED 001523 00007540-00001 review panel for the Obama-era ozone standard was asked to review EPA science that had cited CASAC panel members more than 700 times." The new chairman of CASAC is Tony Cox, a top statistician and editor of Risk Analysis. The new chairman of the Science Advisory Board (SAB) is Michael Honeycutt, chief toxicologist of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Administrator Pruitt made a number of other sound appointments to the SAB, including Donald van der Vaart, former North Carolina secretary of environmental protection, with whom I was privileged to work on the Trump Transition. See also: EPA Chief Pruitt Bars Government-Funded Science Advisors from Panels Kevin Mooney, The Daily Signal. 31 October 2017 EPA's New Science Advisor Will Bolster Objectivity and Transparency Susan Dudley, The Hill. 1 November 2017 Trump Administration Releases Junk Science Reports The Trump Administration on 3rd November released three climate reports--the final version of the Climate Change Special Report (volume 1 of the National Climate Assessment), the third-order draft of the fourth National Climate Assessment: Climate Change Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation (or volume two), and the second draft of the State of the Carbon Cycle Report. The two draft reports are open for public comment. The reports were made public in an open letter posted on the web site of the U. S. Global Change Research Program signed by Virginia Burkett, acting chair of the USGCRP's subcommittee on global change research, and Michael Kuperberg, the USGCRP's executive director. All three reports were essentially prepared by the Obama Administration to support President Obama's climate agenda. They are full of junk science. Here is what CEI sent out as my brief comment on this sad state of affairs: "It is unfortunate that the Trump Administration has released these Obama-era climate reports, without attempting to remove the junk science--and the reports are full of junk science. That career civil servants were allowed to go ahead and finish reports designed to support President Obama's radical climate agenda show how much work still needs to be done to drain the swamp. It is yet another instance of the damage caused by the White House's failure to nominate people for top positions in a timely way. After over nine months in office, the President has not yet nominated a chief scientific adviser and head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the official who is supposed to be in charge of producing the National Climate Assessment." 17cv1906 Sierra Club v. EPA - 6/22 Production ED 001523 00007540-00002 There is a lot more to be said about these reports in the coming months. The fourth National Climate Assessment (now called volume 2) is due to be released in final form in 2018. See also: A Deceptive New Report on Climate Judith Curry, Climate Etc.. 3 November 2017 Other items: Carbon Tax: Political Poison for the Conservative Movement Mario Lewis, -Jne-'- Tc-hm, 2 November 2017 DuPont Closes Iowa Celiulosic Ethanol Plant. Despite Cellulosic Production Quota Jessie Scott, Successful Farming. 2 November 2017 Climate Scientist Sues Journal for $10 Million over Hurt Feelings Alex Berezow, AcCH, 2 November 2017 Stever-Monev Greens Sow Confusion in Vancouver Seton Motley, ^-d State. 2 November 2017 Trump Administration Stays on Track on Big Energy Picture Robert Bradley, Jr., Master Resource. 1 November 2017 The Green Mob Targets Scott Pruitt Julie Kelly, National Review. 1 November 2017 Green Groups "Shocked" by the Depth of Regulatory Overhaul Pamela King, Energywire, 30 October 2017 Al Gore: "Zero Chance" of Changing Trump's Mind on Climate Michael Dudek, Chicago Sun-Times. 29 October 2017 "Drain the Swamp?" Trump OpC [us Politics as Usual When It Comes to Ethanol Sofie Miller & Susan Dudley, , 27 October 2017 Myron Ebell 17cv1906 Sierra Club v. EPA - 6/22 Production ED 001523 00007540-00003 Director, Center for Energy and Environment Competitive Enterprise Institute 1310 L Street, N. W., Seventh Floor Washington, DC 20005, USA Tel direct: (202) 331-2256 Tel mobile: (202) 320-6685 E-mail: Mvron.Ebell@cej.org Stop continental drift! 17cv1906 Sierra Club v. EPA 6/22 Production ED 001523 00007540-00004