EPA Scientists Decry Political Pressure

In Online Survey, Hundreds Complain That Their Superiors Want To Skew Findings

(AP)  Hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency scientists complain they have been victims of political interference and pressure from superiors to skew their findings, according to a survey released Wednesday by an advocacy group.

The Union of Concerned Scientists said that more than half of the nearly 1,600 EPA staff scientists who responded online to a detailed questionnaire reported they had experienced incidents of political interference in their work.

EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar attributed some of the discontent to the "passion" scientists have toward their work. He said EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, as a longtime career scientist at the EPA himself, "weighs heavily the science given to him by the staff in making policy decisions."

But Francesca Grifo, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Scientific Integrity Program, said the survey results revealed "an agency in crisis" with low morale, especially among scientists involved in risk assessment and crafting regulations.

"The investigation shows researchers are generally continuing to do their work, but their scientific findings are tossed aside when it comes time to write regulations," said Grifo.

The group sent an online questionnaire to 5,500 EPA scientists and received 1,586 responses, a majority of them senior scientists who have worked for the agency for 10 years or more. The survey included chemists, toxicologists, engineers, geologists and experts in the life and environmental sciences.

The report said that 60 percent of those responding, or 889 scientists, reported personally experiencing what they viewed as political interference in their work over the last five years. Four in 10 scientists who have worked at the agency for more than a decade said they believe such interference has been more prevalent in the last five years than the previous five years.

Timothy Donaghy, one of the report's co-authors, acknowledged that a large number of scientists did not respond to the survey and said the findings should not be viewed as a random sample of EPA scientists.

Nevertheless, said Donaghy, "we have hundreds of scientists saying there is a problem" with assuring scientific integrity within the federal government's principal environmental regulatory agency.

Asked to respond to the survey, Shradar, the EPA spokesman, said, "We have the best scientists in the world at EPA."

The EPA has been under fire from members of Congress on a number of fronts including its delay in determining whether carbon dioxide should be regulated to combat global warming. Johnson also has been criticized for rejecting recommendations from science advisory boards on a number of air pollution issues including control of mercury from power plants and how much to reduce smog pollution.

In the survey, the EPA scientists described an agency suffering from low morale as senior managers and the White House Office of Management and Budget frequently second-guess scientific findings and change work conducted by EPA's scientists, the report said.

The survey covered employees at EPA headquarters, in each of the agency's 10 regions around the country and at more than a dozen research laboratory. The highest number of complaints about political interference came from scientists who are directly involved in writing regulations and those who conduct risk assessments such as determining a chemical cancer risk for humans.

Nearly 400 scientists said they had witnessed EPA officials misrepresenting scientific findings, 284 said they had witness the "selective or incomplete use of data to justify a specific regulatory outcome" and 224 scientists said they had been directed to "inappropriately exclude or alter technical information" in an EPA document.

Donaghy said that EPA management was aware of the survey, which was conducted by the Center for Survey Statistics & and Methodology at the Iowa State University. He said while some EPA managers initially instructed employees not to participate, the EPA's general counsel's office later sent an e-mail to employees saying they could participate on their private time.

[usbrit-2009]

if 5500 scientists were polled and 889 claim pressure, thats only 16%. therefore, 84% feel no pressure.
the article doesnt define what kind of rpessure these people felt. my cousin works at the EPA and says there is enormous pressure to go along with the climate change agenda. are these responders part of the 889?
writing an article about a small group and ignoring the group that is 5 times larger points to a political agenda.
the UCS is an extremist group that does not represent the views of most scientists, who just do their jobs and dont engage in political propaganda like this.

Posted by stargrrrl

Reading the article carefully you''ll find that only 1586 out of the 5500 responded - so 889 is 60% of the respondants. Who knows whether these were the brave ones and many others were pressured or none of the others were - but even 16% is 16% too many.

The EPA does not really get into Global Warming - it only deals with this country.

I would, however, agree with your statement about the UCS.

[stargrrrl]

if 5500 scientists were polled and 889 claim pressure, thats only 16%. therefore, 84% feel no pressure.
the article doesnt define what kind of rpessure these people felt. my cousin works at the EPA and says there is enormous pressure to go along with the climate change agenda. are these responders part of the 889?
writing an article about a small group and ignoring the group that is 5 times larger points to a political agenda.
the UCS is an extremist group that does not represent the views of most scientists, who just do their jobs and dont engage in political propaganda like this.

[stargrrrl]

if 5500 scientists were polled and 889 claim pressure, thats only 16%. therefore, 84% feel no pressure.
the article doesnt define what kind of rpessure these people felt. pressure to go along with the global wamring hysteria perhaps?
writing an article about a small group and ignoring the group that is 5 times larger points to a political agenda.
the UCS is an extremist group that does not represent the views of most scientists, who just do their jobs and dont engage in political propaganda like this.

[tryhonesty]

The RepubliCONs building the new Soviet America, one moron at a time. The time is NOW to flush these idiots out of office at ALL levels of government!
Vote them out this Fall and in the future. It will take years to save and rebuild America from the RepubliCON distruction. These guys still believe the Earth is flat...Remember Flush these losers out of office!

[ubrew12]

Remember when the national marine fisheries service(NMFS) recommended NOT taking more water from the Klamath River for upstream (Republican) farmers, and the Bush administration overruled them, and ended up killing 60,000 salmon before they could reproduce? The west coast has experience severe shortages of salmon fishing ever since.

This administration is ethically bankrupt.

[kansas1946]

AP) Hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency scientists complain they have been victims of political interference and pressure from superiors to skew their findings, according to a survey released Wednesday by an advocacy group.
********************************************

These people, the supervisors, are just doing what the corrupt Bush adminstration told them to do to save their jobs. Bush is a liar, has lied almost everytime he has opened his mouth, and he has bullied others to do the same. Worst president in the history of the US.

[lindaredtail]

It is true that Bush has interfered consistantly in all these kind of decisions. Christie Todd Whitman who was a moderate Republican quit after Bush insisted that 1. The ground zero air quality report was skewed as we now know. 2. That the global warming report was also skewed with science denying it''s existance that was not reliable and came from a scientist at the National Petroleum Institute. There is also concern about some of the species being removed from the endangered species list at the insistance of his administration. Removing them is an aid to loggers,developers and the like. This devious stuff has been going on for eight years. I''m not surprised in the least.

[trillion1]

What a surprise. Since bush was given the WH there has not been a single report released that hasn''t been made to conform with his twisted view of reality.

[Syndicate]

I feel their pain. Its kinda like Al Gore telling us not to drive our cars. Just a dumb politician who thinks they know it all.

[proudgunownr]

Seems like EPA should now stand for the "Environmental Pillaging Agency"

[bobbyduck1]

How true RickNuber - this gang of corrupt neo-con criminals make up their minds first then determine how to bend or cover up the facts to reach the outcome they want. Like the WMDs in Iraq - just the most visible of their many lies, and their follow on "So What?" attitude!

January 2009 can''t come too soon but I bet we have just begun to see how much more they can destroy before they are through. God help America!

[ricknuber]

No surprises here. The Bush administration has always sought to cover up any empirical fact which disagrees with their ideology.

More corruption, more cover-up. It should be the new Republican marketing slogan.