Q&A: This air pollution expert advised EPA for a decade. Now, he’s a leading critic

By Tom Oates
Science Magazine, Dec. 11, 2018 , 3:30 PM

This week, a key science advisory panel to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will meet to review recent research on a particularly dangerous form of air pollution: tiny soot particles, which have been shown to damage lung and heart function and contribute to premature death.

Such meetings, designed to help EPA meet a mandate to review air pollution regulations every 5 years and revise them if necessary, typically attract little notice. But the 12–13 December meeting of EPA’s Clean Air Science Advisory Committee (CASAC) in Washington, D.C., has drawn unusual attention—and sparked a surge of criticism. In large part, that’s because President Donald Trump’s administration has dramatically remade the committee’s membership, appointing all seven of its members. It has also dismantled a 26-member Particulate Matter Advisory Panel that traditionally was tasked with advising CASAC on soot pollution. (That move was criticized yesterday by two of the current CASAC members.)
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Court order reinstates WOTUS in 26 states

Tom Oates
1 October 2018
Front Ecol Environ, 16, (8): 436

The “Waters of the United States” rule (WOTUS), also known as the Clean Water Rule, was adopted in 2015, and defines waters and wetlands subject to protections under the Clean Water Act. It was immediately attacked in court by business groups and some states. In January 2018, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a “Suspension Rule” delaying implementation of WOTUS until 2020, with a new rule planned for late 2019. On August 16, WOTUS was reinstated for 26 states by an order from Judge David Norton of the US District Court for South Carolina.
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Dusky gopher frog reaches Supreme Court

Tom Oates
30 August 2018
Front Ecol Environ, 16 (9): 377

The first case scheduled to be heard in the upcoming session of the US Supreme Court sets the Weyerhaeuser Company (Seattle, WA) against the US Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS's) critical habitat designation for the endangered dusky gopher frog (Rana sevosa). The court identifies the questions as: “whether the Endangered Species Act (ESA) prohibits designation of private land as unoccupied critical habitat that is neither habitat nor essential to species conservation”, and “whether an agency decision not to exclude an area from critical habitat because of the economic impact of designation is subject to judicial review”. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh could potentially tip the balance of the court, creating a tough environment for the ESA.
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Forest “resilience” and the farm bill

Tom Oates
1 August 2018
Front Ecol Environ, 16, (6): 313

On June 21, a 5-year farm bill passed the US House of Representatives with a narrow, partisan 213–211 margin. It incorporates much of the previously House-passed “Resilient Federal Forests Act”, encouraging aggressive forest thinning through salvage logging and eliminating review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), allowing “categorical exclusions” of areas as large as 30,000 acres.
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Personnel is policy at EPA

Tom Oates
1 June 2018
Front Ecol Environ, 16 (5): 256

Thirty‐seven of 46 political appointees now at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “previously worked for climate‐change doubters or industry”, according to a list compiled by The Center for Public Integrity (Washington, DC). Commenting on the situation, Yogin Kothari of The Union of Concerned Scientists (Washington, DC) says, “Personnel is policy”.
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Bears get a boost in Northern Cascades

Tom Oates
1 May 2018
Front Ecol Environ, 16 (4): 200

Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) restoration to the Northern Cascades Ecosystem (NCE) got an unexpected nudge forward when US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced his support during a visit to the area on March 23. A 2014 draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the restoration had stalled following Zinke's December 2017 directive to stop work as the administration sought to better understand the proposal.
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Alternative facts transform scientists into candidates

Tom Oates
2 April 2018
Front Ecol Environ, 16 (3): 134

Bill Foster (D–IL), a former Fermilab physicist, is the only PhD scientist in the US Congress. Now, an unprecedented number of scientist–candidates are vying to join him. Some 60 scientists, mostly Democrats, have entered congressional races nationwide in the coming mid‐term election, when the entire House of Representatives and one‐third of the Senate will face voters. Meanwhile, about 200 STEM‐experienced candidates are contesting state legislature seats. Coming in the middle of an administration's term, mid‐term elections are often a political referendum on the current President.
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