EPA Administrator Promises To Listen To Scientists

In an eight-page letter to the EPA's Science Advisory Board (Board), EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler provided assurances to the Board that the EPA would continue to share information with the expert advisors in a timely fashion and be more transparent on key regulatory science issues by holding more rapid and frequent briefings. The Board is a panel of nearly four dozen outside researchers and experts who review the technical information used by the EPA to set policy and draft regulations. The assurance letter from Wheeler was in response to complaints from the Board that the agency was ignoring its own research while unwinding Obama-era environmental rules scaling back emissions from automobiles, power plants, and oil wells. While signaling his willingness to continue seeking advice from the Board, Wheeler also made clear that ultimately the "EPA must take account of a wide range of considerations" to ensure its actions are "reasonable, defensible, and consistent with