President Shitstain's EPA Nominee Refuses To Recuse Himself From Cases Involving Old Employers

[hatrack]

President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency’s chemical and pesticides office refused Wednesday to pledge that he would recuse himself from decisions connected to the companies for whom he worked during his long career as a toxicologist for the chemical industry.

At a contentious confirmation hearing, Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee repeatedly asked Michael Dourson, nominated to serve as assistant administrator of the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, whether he would recuse himself from decision-making where he saw a conflict with his past work. Dourson balked, saying he would rely on EPA ethics officials to make any decision on recusal.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), ranking member of the committee, brought a chart to the hearing room that listed some of the chemicals that companies had paid Dourson to study. “In each and every case, you concluded that the right safety standard for the chemicals should be tens, hundreds, even thousands of times less protective than the federal or state regulators did,” Carper said. “It is regrettably difficult to look at your record and conclude that you could be an impartial regulator.”

“One way that you could remedy the perception that you may not be able to be an impartial regulator would be to promise to recuse yourself if confirmed from working on any chemical that industry has paid you to study,” he said. Evironmental experts worry the new process will favor industry preference over public health. But Dourson declined to promise that he would recuse himself. “If confirmed, I will rely on EPA ethics officials to determine any issues for which I am to be recused,” he said.

EDIT

https://thinkprogress.org/democrats-oppose-chemical-safety-nominee-d84c383c40ae/

[Angry Dragon]

1. He admitted he does not have enough ethics or morals to judge himself