“EPA’s scientific integrity official says career staff “quietly documented” alleged violations of the agency’s scientific integrity policy during the Trump era, pointing to a potential trove of evidence for the investigation of “political interference” in TSCA and other programs just as environmentalists are calling for harsh penalties for integrity violations.
But the whistleblower group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is pushing for EPA to do more than just name past actions it says were subject to interference.
PEER released on June 14 an analysis of several agencies’ scientific integrity policies that argues they all contain critical flaws that prevent them from fully protecting either scientific integrity or scientists alleging violations — in part because they impose no direct penalties on violators.
“The current toothless policies protect neither science nor scientists,” PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse says in the statement. “If there is no penalty for violation, why have these policies?”“