The Conservative’s Dictionary Of Scientific Language»

George Gray

Today, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) chaired a hearing of the Environment and Public Works oversight subcommittee investigating the politicization of science at the Environmental Protection Agency.

The administration witness was Dr. George Gray, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development at the EPA. Gray was appointed to the position by President Bush in 2005. Before then, Gray ran the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, an industry-funded think tank founded by John D. Graham in 1990 that fights environmental regulation. (Graham was the “nation’s regulatory gatekeeper” in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from 2001 to 2006.)

At the hearing, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) described Gray’s misuse of the English language as “Alice in Wonderland,” telling Dr. Gray, “You have tried to defend the indefensible and you have failed.” Sen. Whitehouse described the EPA’s actions as “Orwellian” and concluded the hearing with the sarcastic salute, “I have to applaud Dr. Gray for his ability to say what I found to be preposterous things with a completely straight face throughout.”

Here are excerpts from the Conservative’s Dictionary Of Scientific Language discovered by the Wonk Room to help you translate Gray’s tortured testimony:

conflict of interest, n. Conflict with an industry-friendly position. Usage: “One reviewer’s comments were excluded from the report and were not considered by EPA due to the perception of a potential conflict of interest.” — Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Department of Energy report for the EPA Integrated Risk Information System.

In 2007, Dr. Deborah Rice was the chair of an expert peer review panel charged with setting safe exposure levels for deca-BDE, a toxic fire retardant that contaminates human blood and breast milk. The American Chemistry Council (ACC), acting on behalf of the Brominated Flame Retardant Industry Partnership, wrote to Gray to ask that he personally intervene in the process. ACC alleged that the panel is not an “independent, third-party review” because Dr. Rice is a “fervent advocate of banning deca-BDE.” Rice was removed from the panel and her comments stripped.

deliberative, adj. Secret. Usage: “The discussions we have with the rest of the federal agencies are kept deliberative.” — Dr. Gray, in testimony.

This is a reference to the “deliberative process privilege,” which protects internal and interagency communications from judicially compelled disclosure. The Bush administration has claimed that the deliberative process privilege also prevents agencies from voluntarily disclosing such information, and allows them to defy Congressional subpoenas.

science-policy continuum, n. The blurring of all distinctions between scientific and political decision-making. Usage: “EPA views the relationship between science, science policy, and regulation as a continuum.” — Dr. Gray, in testimony.

The laws that govern the Environmental Protection Agency clearly state that only scientific and health considerations may guide its actions. By refusing to accept the distinctions between different stages of the regulatory process, the Bush administration is attempting to provide a legal justification for OMB interference with any and all EPA science.

sound science, n. 1. Political corruption. 2. Scientific research that does not expose industry to potential regulation or litigation. 3. An excuse for delay in regulating industry. Usage: “I have always believed that one of the primary responsibilities of this committee is to ensure that regulatory decisions are based on sound science.” — Sen. Inhofe

The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (now Center) (TASSC) was founded in 1993 by Philip Morris to discredit research demonstrating the dangers of secondhand smoke. The Chronicle for Higher Education described President Bush’s appeal to “sound science” as “a pretext for delaying or junking scientific findings that do not support his policy priorities.”

transparency, n. The pretense that political interference that is kept secret does not exist. Usage: “Transparency is key to the way we do our assessments.” –transparent, adj. Hiding corruption. Usage: “At the end of the process we are very transparent.” –Dr. Gray, in testimony

The EPA decision-making processes involve both secret steps (see “deliberative”) and public steps. At the end of the process all the public steps are disclosed.

uncertainty, n. 1. Scientific conclusions that expose industry to potential regulation or litigation. 2. An excuse for ignoring such science to make an industry-friendly decision. 3. An excuse for delay in regulating industry. Usage: “In so doing, the Administrator sought to balance concern about the potential for health effects and their severity with the increasing uncertainty associated with our understanding of the likelihood of such effects at lower O₃ exposure levels.” –EPA Administrator Johnson’s justification for setting an ozone standard of 0.075 ppm, outside the range of 0.060 to 0.070 recommended by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee.

Johnson used the word “uncertainty” over 150 times in his ozone standard ruling. However, as Dr. George Thurston testified, “In the face of uncertainty, the Clean Air Act stipulates that the Administrator must choose a more stringent standard, to ensure a margin of safety.” He also explained that the Administrator was confusing “uncertainty in the size of the pollution health effects” with doubt about the existence of any effect. “There is no doubt that there are adverse health effects occuring below 0.075 ppm.”

EPA’s Johnson Claims ‘Ongoing Back Issues’ Prevent Him From Testifying Before Congress»

As each day brings new scandals involving the Environmental Protection Agency to light, the pressure for EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to respond is growing. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)’s Oversight and Government Reform Committee had scheduled a hearing for tomorrow with Johnson to testify on White House interference with ozone standards.

Today, Al Kamen reports that the hearing has been postponed because Johnson refused to appear:

EPA officials say Johnson had a “recurrence of ongoing back issues stemming from a car accident years ago.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is conducting a hearing right now into the politicization of EPA scientific decisions (live webcast). Administrator Johnson declined the invitation to appear.

The Wonk Room wishes Administrator Johnson well and hopes that his recurring back pain subsides. Once he recovers, he should be ready to testify on these and other ongoing scandals involving his agency:

UPDATE: Council on Foreign Relations fellow and former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson argues today in the Washington Post:

There are few things in American politics more irrationally ideological, more fanatically faith-based, than the accusation that Republicans are conducting a “war on science.”

UPDATE II: The Sacramento Bee reports that the EPA will probably not regulate toxic rocket fuel contamination of water:

In a Senate hearing Tuesday, EPA assistant water chief Benjamin Grumbles did not dispute studies showing that perchlorate increases risks of brain damage in fetuses and infants and thyroid disorders in adults.

But, Grumbles said, there’s a “distinct possibility” the environmental agency won’t take action because they don’t know whether regulation would meaningfully reduce those risks.

Jason Burnett — The John Yoo Of The EPA — Steps Down»

Yesterday, John Yoo agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the Bush Administration’s torture and interrogation practices. Yoo is the former Deputy Assistant Attorney General responsible for a series of controversial legal decisions, most famously the “torture memo” that argued physical torture “must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.” Yoo stepped down after President Bush’s first term.

Yesterday, Associate Deputy Administrator Jason Burnett of the Environmental Protection Agency announced his departure from the EPA. Like John Yoo, the 31-year-old Jason Burnett is the author and advocate of a series of legal arguments that subvert the very purpose of his agency.

Burnett’s shameful record includes:

– Promoting arsenic in drinking water. Working with American Enterprise Institute scholar Robert Hahn in 2000 and 2001, Burnett wrote a series of papers arguing that the Environmental Protection Agency should let economic costs trump scientific recommendations when setting regulatory health standards. Burnett argued that an arsenic standard proposed in the waning days of the Clinton Administration “cannot be justified on economic grounds.” The Bush administration eventually adopted the Clinton standard after outcry followed its original announcement to abandon it.

– The “Queen of Hearts” mercury regulations. Working in the EPA Office of Air and Radiation from 2004 to 2006, Burnett authored the industry-friendly mercury regulations that were rejected by a federal appeals court in 2008. In its decision, the court said the EPA’s “explanation deploys the logic of the Queen of Hearts, substituting EPA’s desires for the plain text” of the Clean Air Act.

– Overruling soot health standards at behest of industry. Fine particle matter — soot — kills more people than any other form of air pollution. On July 12, 2006, Johnson, Burnett, and two other EPA officials met with 15 top industry lobbyists. Two months later, Administrator Johnson issued a standard forty percent above the recommendation of staff scientists, the independent Clean Air Scientific Advisory Council, and the American Medical Association, leaving 77 million Americans at medical risk.

– Climate contempt. Following the Supreme Court mandate to take action on global warming pollution, Jason Burnett “worked on EPA’s controversial decision to deny a California petition seeking to regulate cars and trucks for climate change.” S. William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, described the decision as “legally and technically unjustified and indefensible.”

Darren Samuelson, who broke the story of Burnett’s resignation on E&E News (sub. req’d), interviewed Burnett on how he perceives his global warming legacy:

“I have confidence future administrations will be able to make more informed decisions” based on the work EPA is currently doing on the issue, he said.

Dow Chemical’s Congressman: Gade Was ‘Unprofessional, Vindictive and Insulting’»

Mary Gade, the Midwest regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency who resigned last Thursday, laid the blame on her ongoing efforts to compel Dow Chemical to clean up its decades-old dioxin pollution from its flagship plant in Midland, Michigan. Gade is a lifelong Republican who has been praised by Democrats and environmentalists as “one of the most seasoned and experienced environmental policy-makers in the country,” “a woman of unquestioned credentials and integrity,” and “a highly-qualified and well-regarded official.”

Dave Camp (R-MI)

But Michael Hawthorne reports for the Chicago Tribune that there is at least one official who disagrees:

“In 20 years of public life I have never encountered a more unprofessional, vindictive and insulting government official,” said U.S. Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), whose wife is a former Dow attorney.

What could possibly motivate the nine-term Republican congressman representing Michigan’s Fourth District to make such a strongly worded statement?

Dave Camp Is A Dow Chemical Millionaire. Camp graduated from Midland Dow High School in 1971. In 1994, he married Nancy Keil, an attorney who was working for Dow Chemical at the time. Based on financial disclosure statments, Rep. Dave Camp is worth $3.6 million to $6.9 million, including Dow Chemical Co. stock valued at $500,001 to $1 million and his wife Nancy’s Dow Chemical 401(k) at $100,001 to $250,000. [Detroit News, 7/7/06]

Dow Chemical Fills Dave Camp’s Campaign Coffers. In his freshman term in 1990, Camp received “more than $100,000 from Dow Chemical sources,” the most money any member of Congress received then from any single company. Camp has received at least $298,685 in campaign contributions from Dow Chemical in his career. [Los Angeles Times, 7/1/1992; Center for Responsive Politics]

Dave Camp Scores Zero On The Environment. The League of Conservation Voters gave Rep. Camp (R-MI) a zero rating for the 110th Congress based on twenty key environmental votes this session. He has not scored above 10% in the last decade. [LCV Scorecard]

Dave Camp Believes In Federal Taxdollars Paying To Clean Up The Great Lakes. Press releases on Rep. Camp’s website call for the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act to be funded at $20 million a year instead of $16 million, promote the passage of the $1.71 billion Water Quality Investment Act, and celebrate the $2.75 million in local watershed earmarks he included in the 2008 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. Dow Chemical, the 169th largest company in the world, had sales of $53.5 billion in 2007. [Rep. Camp press releases; Forbes.com]

Dave Camp is only one of several Michigan political officials with strong ties to Dow Chemical who have fought environmental regulation of its dioxin pollution. On September 29, 2004, Camp told the Detroit Free Press, “We have a party responsible for the contamination who wants to do the right thing.” Somehow, Dow Chemical has still managed to avoid cleaning up the waterways downstream of its plant, which it has been operating since 1897.

Who Fired Mary Gade?»

Mary Gade, the Region 5 Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, abruptly resigned yesterday in the midst of a battle with Dow Chemical over its refusal to clean up decades-old dioxin pollution from its headquarters in Michigan. As Michael Hawthorne reported in the Chicago Tribune:

Gade told the Tribune she resigned after two aides to national EPA administrator Stephen Johnson took away her powers as regional administrator and told her to quit or be fired by June 1.

He further reported that one of those officials had recently assessed her performance as “outstanding“:

Five months ago, a top U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official gave Mary Gade a performance rating of “outstanding.” On Thursday, the same official told her to quit or be fired as the agency’s top regulator in the Midwest.

As the EPA organizational chart indicates, the regional administrators report directly to the office of EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson:

EPA Organizational Structure (Detail)

So who can the “two aides to national EPA administrator Stephen Johnson” who “took away her powers” be? The following are the most likely suspects. Read the rest of this entry »

Dow’s Toxic Legacy Of EPA Corruption»

The investigation into the firing of Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator Mary Gade has just begun. But this is not the first EPA scandal involving Dow Chemical’s plant in Midland, Michigan. In 1983, a dioxin-laced scandal involving the very same plant led to a dramatic shakeup of Reagan’s EPA, when Mary Gade was a young staffer at the agency.

As the New York Times reported in an April 19, 1983 story, Dow Chemical’s illegal attempts to avoid responsibility for its dioxin contamination began as far back as 1965:

Almost 20 years ago, scientists from four rival chemical companies attended a closed meeting at the Dow Chemical Company’s headquarters. The subject was the health hazards of dioxin, a toxic contaminant found in a widely used herbicide that the companies manufactured.

Shortly after the meeting, in Midland, Mich., on March 24, 1965, one of those attending wrote in a memorandum that Dow did not want its findings about dioxin made public because the situation might ”explode” and generate a new wave of government regulation for the chemical industry.

The “new wave” of regulations did come to pass, with the Environmental Protection Agency established in 1970 to enforce those laws. However, under President Ronald Reagan, the Environmental Protection Agency colluded with Dow Chemical to hide its responsibility for dioxin contamination:

Three weeks ago, for example, agency officials in Chicago told the Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that their superiors in Washington ordered them to change an important report on dioxin to comply with the wishes of Dow.

The key deletion from the report was the following central conclusion about Dow’s Midland plant: ”Dow’s discharge represented the major source, if not the only source, of TCDD contamination found in the Tittabawassse and Saginaw Rivers and Saginaw Bay in Michigan.”

The Reagan administration doggedly attempted to cover up the scandal. As Maureen Dowd reported in Time Magazine in March 1983, President Reagan “tried to down-play the problems, blaming the press for exaggerating the story.” However, a congressional investigation exposed the extent of Dow Chemical’s influence over the EPA, leading to the dismissal of EPA Administrator Anne McGill Burford and 12 other officials:

Anne McGill Burford, for example, made at least two trips to Midland, Mich., in her 22 months as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Rita M. Lavelle, the former head of the Government program to clean up toxic waste dumps, met at least 14 times with Dow officials in the 11 months she held office.

Mrs. Burford, Miss Lavelle and 11 other political appointees recently resigned or were dismissed amid Congressional inquiries on allegations that the agency’s toxic waste program had been mishandled.

Like the dioxins still contaminating the waters of Saginaw Bay, it appears that Dow Chemical’s toxic influence over the Environmental Protection Agency continues to this very day.

(HT: Dave Dempsey, the Great Lakes Blogger and prominent Michigan environmentalist.)

UPDATE: As Michael Hawthorne reports in the Chicago Tribune, Dow Chemical and the business lobby are still fighting the public relations war:

“There is all of this mystique about dioxin,” said John Musser, a Dow spokesman. “Just because it’s there doesn’t mean there is an imminent health threat.” […]

Bob VanDeventer, president of the Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce, said local leaders are trying to fight the perception that dioxin makes the area unsafe. He argued “not one illness” can be attributed to dioxin and insisted the only way someone could be exposed to dioxin is if they “eat the dirt.”

Sen. Whitehouse Compares EPA Firing To U.S. Attorney Scandal: ‘Déjà Vu All Over Again’»

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency dismissed Midwest regional administrator Mary Gade, one of ten such officials appointed directly by EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. Gade — a lifelong Republican and a prominent supporter of George W. Bush’s pursuit of the presidency in 2000 — told the Chicago Tribune, “There’s no question this is about Dow.” Gade was locked in a battle with Dow Chemical over the cleanup of dioxin poisoning from its world headquarters in Michigan. As former EPA official Robert Sussman writes in the Wonk Room, “To remove a Regional Administrator because of a disagreement over policy at an individual site is unheard of.”

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) just spoke on the Senate floor about Gade’s firing. Whitehouse compared her firing with the U.S. Attorney scandal that enveloped the Department of Justice and led to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s resignation:

We do not yet know all the details of Ms. Gade’s firing, or everything that may have gone on between her office and Dow Chemical. But from everything that we’ve heard and seen so far, it looks like déjà vu all over again. From an administration that values compliance with its political agenda more than it values the trust or the best interests of the American people. Last year we learned that this is an administration that wouldn’t hesitate to fire capable federal prosecutors when they wouldn’t toe an improper party line. Today it seems that the Bush Administration might have once again removed a highly qualified and well-regarded official whose only misstep was to disagree with the political bosses.

Watch it:

Sen. Whitehouse also announced that he is conducting an oversight hearing into the politicization of the EPA and the circumstances of Gade’s dismissal next Wednesday. The last time EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson testified before Sen. Whitehouse, he put in a shameful performance, leading Whitehouse to state:

In my short time in Washington, I didn’t think I would again encounter a witness as evasive and unresponsive as Alberto Gonzales was during our investigation of the U.S. Attorney scandal. Unfortunately, today EPA Administrator Johnson stooped to that low standard.

UPDATE: Kate Sheppard at Gristmill writes that, according to an Energy and Commerce Committee spokesperson, Committee Chair John Dingell (D-MI) “is concerned about this and has asked his oversight staff to look into it.”

UPDATE II: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-MI) noted that Gade stepped down “the same day that Indiana forwarded its final draft air permit for the BP Whiting plant to EPA Region 5 for its review.” He has “asked for a meeting with the Administrator of EPA so that I can better understand why Ms. Gade has been placed on administrative leave,” and called on President Bush to “act swiftly to fill this important position with an administrator who will protect Lake Michigan and the communities that surround it.”

Sen. Whitehouse’s full remarks on politics at EPA, as prepared for delivery: Read the rest of this entry »

Former EPA Official: Gade’s Firing Is ‘Unprecedented And Highly Irregular’»

Our guest blogger is Robert M. Sussman, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and former Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mary Gade

In a highly unusual move, EPA Administrator Steve Johnson reportedly stripped the Administrator of EPA Region 5, Mary Gade, of her powers and told her to quit or be fired by June 1. Mary is a loyal Republican and one of the most seasoned and experienced environmental policy-makers in the country.

In addition to many years as a career employee in Region 5, Mary was appointed by Republican Governor Jim Edgar to head the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. She served in that position with distinction, chairing the multi-state Ozone Transport Assessment Group which recommended groundbreaking controls of NOx emissions throughout the Eastern US. Mary was also the head and co-founder of the Environmental Council of the States, an influential and respected group of top environmental officials from state agencies.

While the facts are still coming to light, Mary has said that EPA political leaders wanted to block the Region from taking aggressive action to clean up dioxin contamination near the Dow Chemical facility in Midland, Michigan and removed her from her position because she would not go along. This would be an unprecedented and highly irregular action by EPA political management. The regions traditionally have broad discretion in handling cleanups.

To remove a Regional Administrator because of a disagreement over policy at an individual site is unheard of.

If Mary stood up for her career staff and pushed for strong action to abate contamination, she was only performing her job under the environmental laws as she saw it. It is hard to believe that Mary, an astute and successful lawyer in private practice with a long track record of implementing the federal contamination laws, would overstep legal boundaries. If her only sin was zeal in protecting the public, firing her was wrong and will send a troubling message to EPA employees all across the country who are trying to do their jobs. Clearly, it’s up to Steve Johnson to explain why he fired Mary and up to Congress to investigate the circumstances.

A staunch Bush supporter, Mary said in 2000 that “Governor Bush in two terms has put together a stronger bipartisan record on conservation and the environment than Al Gore has in twenty-plus years in Washington, D.C., precisely because Bush puts action and results above talk and posture.” Mary’s firing sadly demonstrates that “action and results” are not encouraged or rewarded at Mr. Bush’s EPA.