Judge throws out Trump rule limiting what science EPA can use

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Climate and Environment

Judge throws out Trump rule limiting what science EPA can use

Biden officials had asked the Montana federal judge to send back the Environmental Protection Agency rule limiting studies behind public health safeguards.

By Juliet Eilperin
Feb. 1, 2021 at 4:10 p.m. EST

A federal judge on Monday vacated the Trump administration rule limiting which scientific studies the Environmental Protection Agency can use in crafting public health protections, overturning one of the last major actions taken by the agency before President Biden took office.

The ruling by Judge Brian Morris, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, Great Falls, marked a victory for environmental groups and public health advocates. Just two weeks before Biden’s inauguration, EPA finalized a rule requiring researchers to disclose the raw data involved in their public health studies before the agency could rely upon their conclusions.

The rule, which was made effective immediately, would assign less weight to studies built on medical histories and other confidential data from human subjects where the underlying information was not revealed. That sort of research — including dose-response studies, which evaluate how much a person’s exposure to a substance increases the risk of harm — have been used for decades to justify EPA regulations.

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Three groups - the Environmental Defense Fund, the Montana Environmental Information Center and Citizens for Clean Energy - sued and last week Morris ruled the agency acted improperly by issuing the rule under the Federal Housekeeping Statute, which allows for changes that are only procedural and not substantive. The Biden administration requested the judge vacate the rule and send it back to the agency.

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Juliet Eilperin
Juliet Eilperin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning senior national affairs correspondent for The Washington Post, covering environmental and energy policy. She has written two books, "Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks" and "Fight Club Politics: How Partisanship is Poisoning the House of Representatives." Follow https://twitter.com/eilperin

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Add Pro-Pollution to the other fine MAGATrump qualities

of racism, fascism, nascent Nazism.

[PatrickforO]

2. I saw this on the Hill.

Attacking the data is one of the worst things Trump did.

Not only did he gag the EPA from actually publishing the studies they do, but he also tried to suppress data on new unemployment claims, and actually asked state departments of labor and employment to delay reporting new claims.

He attempted to hamstring the Census with a citizenship question, and even suggested the Decennial 2020 Census be delayed.

Finally, he cost who knows how many lives by ordering hospitals to stop reporting COVID data to the CDC and instead send it to his buddy at Health and Human Services.

Trump sucked in SO many ways, and this is one of the worst, because everyone, and I mean everyone, needs accurate, timely data to inform discussions on policy.

[Nitram]

3. This is very good news. I was concerned about this rule. It turns out it would never have flown.

"Morris ruled the agency acted improperly by issuing the rule under the Federal Housekeeping Statute, which allows for changes that are only procedural and not substantive."