Congress’ Questioning of the National Academies is Crucial to Restoring Faith in Science

PPT applauds the House Oversight Committee’s inquiry into a highly politicized public institution.

Federal watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) today voiced its support for the House Oversight Committee’s letter to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) regarding its highly irregular “fast-track” review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to rescind its 2009 Endangerment Finding on CO2. PPT has previously raised concerns that NASEM’s review was the work of a politically compromised institution.

According its 1863 charter, NASEM is a resource for advising the government “whenever called upon.” However, the Trump EPA rolling back the Endangerment Finding seemed to rouse NASEM into taking the extraordinary action of initiating an in-house study without authorization from a government agency. NASEM’s review appears to have been designed not to inform the American people, but to insert itself into government policymaking, undermine the EPA, and provide ammunition for anticipated litigation.

Unsurprisingly, NASEM’s fast-track study was little better than the original finding it was meant to bolster, with just as predetermined an outcome. As PPT and others revealed, the Obama EPA and its climate activist allies engineered a rushed, unscientific, and thoroughly political power grab with the Endangerment Finding. The finding declared CO2 – a major component of all life on earth – a “greenhouse pollutant,” essentially creating the climate change industry at the expense of the U.S. economy.

Recent actions reining in extreme federal climate policy, including defunding the egregiously flawed National Climate Assessment, have been a victory for science, and a blow to political propagandists. The Oversight Committee has exposed where NASEM really stands in that conflict.

“NASEM’s unsolicited fast-tracked study was a panicky attempt to provide the climate industry and activists with litigation-ready arguments to prop up an increasingly untenable climate alarmist narrative,” said PPT Communications Director Alexa Moutevelis. “The science the government uses to make regulatory decisions of enormous economic and social importance cannot be tainted by such partisan special interests. The Oversight Committee’s action ensures a commitment to gold standard science, not progressive policy priorities.”

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