Dear Friends,

In one of his most outrageous moves yet, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is pushing a proposal to grant himself the power to censor science — including research that demonstrates the harmful impacts that his big polluter allies have on our clean air and water, our land, our wildlife, and our climate.

He claims that his goal is transparency, but it’s clear that Pruitt is once again tipping the scales in favor of polluters over our environment and our children’s health.

This insidious proposal would give him — and only him — the authority to determine which scientific findings would be used to set new health and environmental standards at the EPA — and which would be completely ignored.

NRDC is fully prepared to drag Pruitt to court and fight tooth and nail to block this dangerous power grab. But in the meantime, the EPA is accepting public comments on this outrageous proposal and we need your help to flood the agency with letters of opposition from the public.

Please join NRDC in calling on the EPA to reject Pruitt’s “Censoring Science Rule.”

Under this proposal, Pruitt could clamp down on health standards issued under some of our most fundamental environmental safeguards, like the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act. And the plan would make it harder to put in place new protections when scientific evidence calls for the need to act.

Pruitt’s “rationale” is that the EPA should only use publicly available data as the basis for its scientific findings. Sounds reasonable on its face, right? But here’s the reality: many scientific studies rely on private, confidential data — medical studies, personal health data, and clinical reports — which cannot be made public.

Pruitt’s intention is not “transparency,” as he would have you believe. He’s trying to keep inconvenient data out of the EPA’s research process to help his big polluter backers.

And, of course, Pruitt’s proposal would exempt industry-funded research so companies could continue to keep their “confidential business information” secret.

This hypocritical and blatantly pro-polluter move reveals Pruitt’s true motives: Censor science done in the public interest by independent researchers… but champion research conducted by the very polluters that the EPA is tasked with regulating.

We cannot let Scott Pruitt get away with this. Please send a comment to the EPA and raise your objection to this disastrous plan today.

Scott Pruitt is currently under the spotlight of at least 15 different federal investigations of misconduct. NRDC continues working overtime to remove Pruitt from the EPA.

As Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt sued the EPA 15 times to block regulations. And since being appointed, he has replaced the EPA’s scientific advisory boards with industry insiders and climate deniers, deleted references to climate change from the EPA’s website, and silenced the EPA’s own experts from speaking out about the dangers of climate change and air pollution.

This latest blatant power grab is yet another example of Pruitt’s war on science — and why Pruitt is unfit to lead the EPA.

NRDC is fighting back and will do all we can to stop this absurd proposal from ever being adopted — including taking the fight to court, if we must.

But first, we need to mobilize an immediate public outcry opposing this proposal and draw attention to the fact that Pruitt is dangerously unfit to helm the EPA.

I hope you will stand with NRDC and urge EPA officials to reject Scott Pruitt’s push to censor critical scientific evidence that the agency needs to protect our environment and our health.

Sincerely,
 
Rhea Suh
President, NRDC