Dismissed EPA science advisers gather in ‘unprecedented’ challenge to Trump administration.

Pedro_P

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▼ extraordinary event launched this morning in the most mundane of surroundings: a neutral-toned conference room that featured scientific researchers seated around a makeshift table.
"We are here to talk about air quality," Chris Frey, chairman of the Independent Particulate Matter Review Panel, said at the outset of a two-day meeting that is effectively a rebuke to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) handling of a high-stakes review of the standards for a common, but dangerous, pollutant.
Its 20 members, almost all of them from academia, had previously served on a comparable advisory panel for EPA, only to be summarily fired last fall by the agency's then-acting administrator, Andrew Wheeler. They have now regrouped to take on the same role, albeit unofficially, with the help of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a research and advocacy group critical of the Trump administration's approach to science that is based in Cambridge, Massachussetts ( Greenwire, 26 September).
"Today is unprecedented," Gretchen Goldman, research head for the group's Center for Science and Democracy, said in an opening statement. "Nothing like this has been done before. Nothing like this has ever been necessary."
During the two-day meeting, which is taking place in a hotel just outside Washington, D.C., panel members will provide detailed feedback on a draft EPA assessment that found the existing standards for fine particulates may be too weak to prevent a "substantial number" of premature deaths. The panel's conclusions will then be fashioned into a report for EPA.
It is intended to serve as a counterweight to the official process that members view as tilted against a balanced consideration of the evidence.
"We certainly hope to get the best expert opinion of the best experts on the science and policy issues ... to better inform the agency," Frey, an environmental engineering professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, said in an interview beforehand.
Asked whether members have reached any conclusion as to whether changes to the existing limits are warranted, he replied: (▪ ▪ ▪)

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parivijesh100

Every one taking steps to remove or speak against Trump but he hardly bothers & turn the difficult situations in his favour. He will win next election also.