How Trump Could Wage a War on Scientific Expertise

[rug]

The mechanics of stripping empiricism out of America’s regulatory systems

ED YONG DEC 2, 2016

In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned 19 common chemicals from common antibacterial washes, because manufacturers hadn’t shown that they were safe in the long run, or any better than plain soap and water. In October, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated a rule forcing dozens of states to reduce levels of ozone and other air pollutants coming out of power plants—a move that would protect hundreds of millions of Americans from lung diseases. In the same month, the EPA and the United National Highway Traffic Safety Administration enacted a rule that limits the carbon dioxide emissions from heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and tractors.

In a few months, these regulations could vanish, along with over 100 others designed to protect the health, safety, and welfare of Americans.

To an extent, regulations are necessary. Laws like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, and many others have been instrumental in improving health, saving lives, and protecting the environment. These rules are multiplying. Their opponents argue that they limit businesses, stifle innovation, add red tape, and cost jobs. Their defenders say that they boost efficiency, create employment in new sectors, and are moral imperatives regardless of costs.

It is clear where president-elect Donald Trump stands. “The monstrosity that is the Federal Government with its pages and pages of rules and regulations has been a disaster for the American economy and job growth,” he said during his campaign. Come January, he will have the power to take on that perceived monster.

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/12/how-trump-could-wage-a-war-on-scientific-expertise/509378/

[neeksgeek]

1. I, for one, welcome our new methane-breathing overlords.

[SeattleVet]

2. I shudder to think how badly decimated NOAA will become.

Oceanic (acidification) and Atmospheric (climate change) are a large part of what the scientists and researchers do at this, the largest component of the Department of Commerce.

I got caught up in one of their GOP-mandated budget cuts several years ago. Got laid off the day before my 58th birthday; fortunately, my wife had a good job, so I just sort of considered myself 'retired' at that point.

[2naSalit]

3. It is a very troubling thought

I have been involved in protecting our host of conservation policies for a long time and it appears that the cabal who have been trying to destroy all of these policies have been handed a free pass to have it all. I am not sure what I will do in the future, I can barely afford life right now. Most of my income, of late, has been from working to protect our natural resources whether in a gov't agency or an NGO.

There will be a revived attack on science, in general, as we saw during the W nightmare only worse. Why is this? Because most of the policies that those folks hate require mediation via litigation, it says so right in the "Acts"... Even Congress can't change them without going to court. But the biggest thing that these "Acts" say is that any and all decisions made regarding/within the parameters of these "Acts" must be made "...using the best available science (scientific data)*. And there you have the core reason why science is under attack and easily done by guiding the willfully ignorant to chant the chosen buzz-words.

*This is a clause in the instructions guiding all of us in how to implement the rules defined in the Act... like in the Endangered Species Act, a species can't be included or removed from the list of protected species without extensive scientific inquiry prior to the change in status under the rules of the Act. There is the impact statement process (the science part conducted both by government agencies and private entities) and the public comment sessions ...due process. The Rs don't like this as seen in attempts to gut the ESA in the recent past both overtly and clandestinely.

This is so depressing.