Senate Dems push back against bill banning EPA ‘secret science’

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are urging their Republican colleagues to stop a bill aimed at improving scientific transparency at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The bill “would dramatically change what data and scientific research the Environmental Protection Agency could use in fulfilling its mission to protect public health and welfare,” said the Democrats, led by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), in a letter Monday.

The letter comes a day before the panel, led by Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), plans to vote on the measure to stop the EPA from using “secret science” to justify regulations.

{mosads} The Democrats cited the Obama administration’s objections to the bill, outlined in March when it threatened to veto the legislation.

The administration said the measure “would impose arbitrary, unnecessary, and expensive requirements,” impeding the ability to use science to protect health and the environment as required by law.

The bill therefore “deserves to be scrutinized through a legislative hearing in advance of its mark up,” the Democrats wrote.

Despite the veto threat, the House easily passed the bill in March, as it has done multiple times before.

Supporters of the measure argue that the EPA prevents scrutiny of its science and analysis by hiding it from the public.

Inhofe, who is extremely skeptical of the Obama EPA’s rules on climate change and other environmental matters, has previously expressed similar concerns.