Posted on 04/29/2014 7:39:39 AM PDT by servo1969
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy has issued a warning to Republicans who continue to question the integrity of the agency’s scientific data: we’re coming for you.
McCarthy told an audience at the National Academy of Sciences on Monday morning the agency will go after a “small but vocal group of critics” who are arguing the EPA is using “secret science” to push costly clean air regulations.
“Those critics conjure up claims of EPA secret science — but it’s not really about EPA science or secrets. It’s about challenging the credibility of world renowned scientists and institutions like Harvard University and the American Cancer Society,” McCarthy said, according to Politico.
“It’s about claiming that research is secret if researchers protect confidential personal health data from those who are not qualified to analyze it — and won’t agree to protect it,” she added. “If EPA is being accused of secret science because we rely on real scientists to conduct research, and independent scientists to peer review it, and scientists who’ve spent a lifetime studying the science to reproduce it — then so be it.”
Republicans Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana and Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas have led the charge on pressing the EPA to make publicly available the scientific data behind its clean air regulations. McCarthy promised she would make such data publicly available during her confirmation process last year. Now her refusal to cough up the data has angered Republicans.
“EPA’s leadership is willfully ignoring the big picture and defending EPA’s practices of using science that is, in fact, secret due to the refusal of the agency to share the underlying data with Congress and the American public,” said Vitter.
“We’re not asking, and we’ve never asked, for personal health information, and it is inexcusable for EPA to justify billions of dollars of economically significant regulations on science that is kept hidden from independent reanalysis and congressional oversight,” Vitter added.
The EPA has used non-public data to justify 85 percent of $2 trillion worth of Clean Air Act regulation benefits from 1990 to 2020. The agency also uses such datasets to assert that Clean Air Act regulation benefits exceed the costs by a 30:1 ratio originates from the secret data sets.
House Republicans have backed a bill that would block the EPA from crafting regulations based on “secret” data. Republicans argue that such data was used to craft onerous regulations, like one promulgated in late 2012 to reduce soot levels.
That soot rule is supposed to yield $4 billion to $9 billion in benefits per year, while costing from $50 million to $350 million, but the data backing that claim up is not publicly available.
“For far too long, the EPA has approved regulations that have placed a crippling financial burden on economic growth in this country with no public evidence to justify their actions,” said Arizona Republican Rep. David Schweikert, who introduced the bill.
“Virtually every regulation proposed by the Obama administration has been justified by nontransparent data and unverifiable claims,” said Smith, who cosponsored the bill. “The American people foot the bill for EPA’s costly regulations, and they have a right to see the underlying science. Costly environmental regulations should be based on publicly available data so that independent scientists can verify the EPA’s claims.”
EPA: You’ll just have to trust us.
But eventually, dissenters are identified as threatening the well-being of the people, and are therefore to be dissuaded, controlled... and then stopped. The science is settled. The argument is over. The hammer will come down.
Judging merely by the photograph, I wonder if there is a heterosexual female anywhere in the Kenyan government?
No, bitch, WE are coming for YOU.
“Secret Science” my butt. It’s bare faced fabrications, lies, call it what you will. They have an agenda, and truth doesn’t help them achieve it.
Dyke?
Gina, you ignorant sl*t...I challenge you on ANY question of science at any time.
Prepare to get our ignorant brain shoved up your septic Obamahole, wench.
Really, folks, this is revolution time. I’m sick and tired of folks who should be digging ditches being placed into positions of importance within agencies which should not even be allowed to exist.
Again, waiting your answer, ignorant wench.
TRANSLATION:
“It’s about claiming that research is secret if researchers KEEP IT SECRET FROM THE DUMBIES WHO PAY THE BILLS.”
What does it mean to ‘go after’ Congress? Congress is sovereign, and can abolish the EPA by a simple majority vote.
Oops, anger triumphed over keyboard.
That’s “Prepare to get your irnorant brain...not our ignorant brain.”
Gasp, I’ve had a dim-bulb-crat brain moment.
That’s a man wannabe. Dyke.
The Not See left is coming 4 u
Liars and thieves always have something to hide, and it isn’t science, not provable science.
Nope, Red Herring!! Nobody is accusing the EPA of relying on real scientists. They are accusing you of being politically motivated and adulterating the science.
That's pretty much what an EPA scientist told McCarthy's predecessor - and was summarily fired or banished to some remote outpost. That raw data is an inconvenient truth, you might say.
Agree. It is as if each and every one of them has been to the “Benito Mussolini School of Persuasive Posture.”
The utter arrogance and self righteous demeanor is astounding for some many who have so few abilities or credentials save being part of some victim group or another.
Can’t wait to see some of these -—holes in the unemployment line.
Real science is fully transparent and open to examination and challenge. The EPA and the global warming folks practice "political" science where they attempt to cut off discussion, avoid debate and hide the details of their data and their models. They provide an argument based on (their) authority, not on the merits.
The left loves to talk about "settled science", "settled law" and "the law of the land" when it is convenient to their purposes.
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