The decision to dissolve the panels is part of a broader effort by the EPA’s leadership to change the way the agency conducts and assesses science. In the past, each panel had roughly two dozen researchers who reviewed the latest air pollution science and made recommendations on how to set new air standards for a specific pollutant the agency is legally obligated to regulate. Researchers from academia, he said, “bring an essential science perspective to the review process.”The lack of academics is consistent with past policy from Trump’s EPA. Last year, the agency barred academics who received EPA grants from serving on science panels. In April 2016, the EPA issued a draft proposal to tighten the national ambient air quality standards for particulate matter and gave it to the particulate matter panel to review.

Source: Washington Post October 14, 2018 00:11 UTC