Yesterday EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced a major step forward in his efforts to reform the Environmental Protection Agency.

CFACT was there!

EPA will stop relying on “secret science” in its rule-making process and  enter a new era of transparency under a new regulation Administrator Pruitt unveiled at EPA headquarters.

The new rule would ban EPA from relying on any research that doesn’t make its underlying data available for other researchers and the general public to review.  It does, however, safeguard individual privacy for such issues as medical confidentiality.  The rule will take effect prospectively, ushering in a future of transparency and accountability for the agency charged with the crucial task of protecting our environment.

Texas Congressman Lamar Smith, a longtime advocate for greater transparency at EPA said, “Surely, we can all agree on two things.  First, we need clean air and water. And second, EPA’s regulations should be supported by legitimate and publicly available scientific data.”

CFACT’s Marc Morano, Bonner Cohen and Adam Houser joined me in attending the announcement.

I also had the chance to tell Administrator Pruitt about the thousands of CFACT’s friends and supporters who signed the petition to keep his reforms moving forward at EPA.  CFACT will be making an initial submission of this important petition to the White House on Friday.  Please tell your friends, family and colleagues right away that there is still time to sign!

In the past EPA has relied on studies such as the “Harvard six cities” study and others from the American Cancer Society to  issue rules such as those governing very fine particles smaller than 2.5 microns, to hammer businesses and localities with costly clean air regulations.  Business and others were helpless to defend themselves, as they didn’t have access to the data used to regulate them.  They just had to “trust the government.”   Now EPA is moving to more open “trust, but verify” practices.

Making data available for other researchers to evaluate and test is essential to the scientific method.

Congratulations to Scott Pruitt for making sound, open science essential to the operations of EPA.