Environmental Protection Agency building, Washington, D.C.ISTOCK, JKBOWERSProtests have erupted in Rhode Island following the decision of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to keep three of its scientists from speaking at an event about the future of a local estuary in response to climate change.
The 30 or so protesters gathered angrily in Providence with signs including “Un-gag the EPA” and “Science not Silence,” according to the Associated Press. The decision was condemned by researchers as well as Democratic members of Congress. Rhode Island’s senior senator, Jack Reed, told the Washington Post on Monday: “This type of political interference, or scientific censorship—whatever you want to call it—is ill-advised and does a real disservice to the American public and public health.”
No clear explanation was given why the EPA scientists had been barred from speaking, according to The New York Times. They had been scheduled to discuss a scientific report, which EPA researchers helped write, on the ecological state of the Narragansett Bay and its estuary. The report comes to the ...
