A Strategy to Stop EPA Science Abuse

There is a way to stop the EPA's abuse of science and prevent their continued aggressive regulatory activity that destroys the economy and causes harm to Americans. Primarily, we have to hold the EPA to good scientific principles and stop the EPA's overreaching and panic-mongering.

The method that will work is a well-established judicial and legal demand for good scientific evidence as described in the Daubert supreme court opinion, explained in the book by the Federal Judicial Center -- the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence.

The Supreme Court opinion in Daubert v. Merrell Dow, 509 U.S. 579 (1993) set out rules on assessing the reliability of scientific evidence. To educate judges on how to conduct judicial affairs consistent with the Daubert rules, the Federal Judicial Center published the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (RMSE) in 1994.

Properly used, the RMSE and Daubert will stop the scientific misconduct of the United States EPA and refute their claims that air pollution regulations and other pollution laws save thousands of lives. In fact, the environment of America is safe and low-risk, and the EPA is promoting unjustified concerns and panics.

A challenge to EPA science and claims used to justify aggressive regulatory actions will also restore rationality and sensible scientific inquiry to environmental policy-making.

Based on the Daubert evidentiary dicta, the Federal Judicial Center (FJC) has published 3 editions of the RMSE (1994, 2000, and 2011) to educate judges on how to be gatekeepers for good science testimony and evidence in the courtroom.

The RMSE introductory chapters are on the Daubert opinion and how it affects the federal rules of evidence (1975) and testimony under Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 702 ("Testimony by Experts").

The first and second editions of the RMSE are similar -- legal introduction, then science...

About time.

One can only hope that there are enough people and states who are willing to stand up to that most corrupt bureaucracy (EPA) to discredit it once and for all.

There duplicitous and underhanded tactics are nothing new; the EPA has been "cooking the books" and results for decades as evidenced by their having been "bitch-slapped" over and over to include the famous "2nd hand smoke" decision handed down by Judge William Osteen:

In his stinging rebuke of the EPA, Judge Osteen stated the following, which should have put a stake in the EPA's heart, but like the night of the living dead, it continued to advance its agenda to this day.

Judge Osteen: "In this case, EPA publicly committed to a conclusion before research had begun; excluded industry by violating the Act's procedural requirements; adjusted established procedure and scientific norms to validate the Agency's public conclusion, and aggressively utilized the Act's authority to disseminate findings to establish a de facto regulatory scheme intended to restrict Plaintiffs, products and to influence public opinion.

In conducting the ETS Risk Assessment, disregarded information and made findings on selective information; did not disseminate significant epidemiologic information; deviated from its Risk Assessment Guidelines; failed to disclose important findings and reasoning; and left significant questions without answers.

EPA's conduct left substantial holes in the administrative record. While so doing, produced limited evidence, then claimed the weight of the Agency's research evidence demonstrated ETS causes cancer. Gathering all relevant information, researching, and disseminating findings were subordinate to EPA's demonstrating ETS a Group A carcinogen."

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