EPA Postpones Decision on Rule to Restrict Scientific Input

It will be more than a year before the agency institutes or rejects the controversial changes proposed by former EPA head Scott Pruitt.

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The Environmental Protection Agency will not decide upon the proposed Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science rule, which would limit the use of nonpublic data in policy making, until January 2020, according to a regulatory agenda released by the White House earlier this week (October 17).

Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt proposed the regulation just a couple of months before he stepped down from the position following multiple investigations into his use of taxpayer dollars and other ethically questionable practices. The rule purportedly seeks to increase transparency surrounding the EPA’s policy decisions, but critics argue that its requirement that all supporting data be made publicly available would prohibit the consideration of many studies that draw on confidential patient information.

The decision to backburner the proposal, which has received nearly 600,000 comments from the public, has not assuaged its opponents. “The current political leadership still wants to move forward ...

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Meet the Author

  • Jef Akst

    Jef Akst was managing editor of The Scientist, where she started as an intern in 2009 after receiving a master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses.
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