The lack of transparency is likely unlawful, environmental advocates and legal experts tell the Monitor. They say it leaves the public in the dark about how decisions are being made about the use of potentially dangerous chemicals.
“The taxpayers have a right to know,” says Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, a nonprofit watchdog organization that defends government scientists, land managers, and whistleblowers who expose environmental wrongdoing.
“Otherwise,” Mr. Whitehouse says, “we’re entering a whole new world where government becomes further removed from the American people and captured by tools that very few people understand and that have inherent biases and flaws.”