May 18, 2020 – The Environmental Protection Agency has opened the door for a U.S. government agency to ignore scientific evidence in its decision-making, which we fear will endanger the health of millions of Americans. At a time when the federal government should be focused on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EPA is pushing forward an unnecessary rule that puts our health at greater risk and ignores overwhelming criticism from scientists, doctors, and public health professionals, including its own Scientific Advisory Board. The EPA rule would introduce an untested system for analyzing data and allow the agency to ignore the best available science when setting regulations. Let’s be clear: this rule is a deliberate attempt to exclude scientific evidence from the policymaking process. If this so-called ‘transparency’ rule goes into effect, the EPA’s ability to protect the health of Americans will be diminished.

Note: For additional information, please read the public comments submitted to EPA by AAAS and 38 other scientific, engineering, and education organizations.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances; Science Immunology; and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more. For additional information about AAAS, see www.aaas.org.