This E&E News article discusses why Trump’s changes to science might not last.
The Trump administration’s attempt to overhaul the way EPA does science may not have a long shelf life.
Many science advocates and past leaders of EPA’s expert advisory panels say the panoply of executive orders and guidances President Trump and his EPA administrators have issued over the past 2 ½ years — to sideline critical scientists, change how the benefits of rules are evaluated and blunt scientific messages — will dissolve as soon as a new president with a different philosophy enters the Oval Office.
“All of these things collectively have been very damaging,” said Christopher Frey, a former chair of EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) who served on its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) until 2018. “But they’ve been done by a flick of the pen by the administrator, and another administrator could flick their pen and do away with that.”