Pruitt Is Reportedly Starting An EPA Initiative To Challenge Climate Science

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environ... Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
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EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, a climate denier, is launching an initiative at the agency to challenge scientists’ near-universal consensus on climate science by having experts debate scientific studies, E&E News reported Friday.

The initiative will include “red team, blue team” exercises to perform “at-length evaluation of U.S. climate science,” an anonymous administration official told E&E News. The term “red team, blue team” is used by the military to describe exercises aimed at finding vulnerabilities, and it was popularized as a way to debate climate science by Wall Street Journal columnist Steven Koonin.

“The administrator believes that we will be able to recruit the best in the fields which study climate and will organize a specific process in which these individuals … provide back-and-forth critique of specific new reports on climate science,” the official told E&E News.

Pruitt has previously said that he would support such a debate over climate science at the EPA, but this report is the first indication that he’s moving toward starting one. The agency did not immediately respond Friday to TPM’s request for comment.

He told Breitbart News earlier in June that he would like to facilitate this type of debate at the EPA.

“What the American people deserve, I think, is a true, legitimate, peer-reviewed, objective, transparent discussion about CO2,” he said.

Though Pruitt reportedly has started this initiative, it’s not clear that he’ll try to challenge the endangerment finding, the EPA determination that greenhouse gas emissions damage the climate, which the agency has used to justify regulation of greenhouse gases, per E&E News’ report. Pruitt vowed that he would not touch the endangerment finding during his confirmation hearing earlier this year.

 

 

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  1. In other news, the NIH will be submitting letters to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine stating vaccines cause autism.

  2. A peer review of CO2 from the petroleum industry.

  3. So Team Science vs. Team Hacks in the Pockets of Industry.

    “What the American people deserve, I think, is a true, legitimate, peer-reviewed, objective, transparent discussion about CO2,” he said.

    So… what we’ve already got through years (if not decades) of diligent scientific research. Yeah – let’s throw that away and start from scratch with a finger on the scale. GREAT idea!

  4. On the plus side, maybe Trump will just annihilate us all by using nuclear weapons to prove his manhood, and then we won’t have to worry about a slow death from climate change?

  5. At what point does a government official become subject to a charge of Willful Negligence?

    If this involved a worker safety issue the fines would be mounting daily while it remained unaddressed and a criminal case referred to the DOJ.

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