environmental science
Project 2025 Was Awful. Trump Has Been Worse.
Trump disowned Project 2025. In retrospect, it seems like he considered it too moderate.
When the Heritage Foundation released Project 2025, there was a big hullabaloo, and Trump quickly disowned it. Bad as it was, however, it appears Project 2025 apparently failed to anticipate the full sweep of Trump’s second term. Many of Trump’s actions mirror Project 2025 recommendations, but in some key areas he’s gone much further. Here …
Continue reading “Project 2025 Was Awful. Trump Has Been Worse.”
CONTINUE READINGOMB’s New Grant Regulations: A Deeper Dive
A close look at OMB’s proposed rule only heightens concerns.
Is OMB’s proposed rewrite of federal grant regulations as bad as it sounds? Sadly, the answer is yes. Below, this posts takes a close look at some key provisions in the regulations. Some raise constitutional problems. Others are merely bad policy, undermining merit review, deterring valuable research, and skewing research toward the politics of the moment.
CONTINUE READINGOMB’s “Reforms” versus NSF’s Statutory Mission
NSF will need to do some serious explaining about how the “reforms” advance its scientific mission.
In terms of DEI, section 1861p-14(7) says that one factor in assessing grants is “expanding participation of women and individuals from underrepresented groups in STEM.” Section 1855a also authorizes the Foundation to support activities to encourage women qualify for and then pursue careers in STEM. Section 1855b contains similar language about the “participation of minorities” in science. How is the prohibition on DEI consistent with these provisions? If not, does the agency now believe these provisions are unconstitutional and if so, one what grounds?
CONTINUE READINGWhy Does the Trump Administration Keeping Attacking Science?
Apparently, the Administration views science as fatally infected with woke ideas and lacking much other value.
Make no mistake, the Trump Administration is engaged in a serious, carefully honed, effort to undermine American science. The National Science Foundation has lost a third of its staff, while the National Institutes of Health have lost 20%. EPA’s science office is being shuttered. Trump’s proposed budget included a 54% cut for NSF, 12% for NIH, and 46% for NASA’s space research. And last week, the government proposed changes to politicize research funding decisions at the expense of merit review. It also proposes making continuation of long-term funding dependent on political whim, which will drive researchers away from projects taking longer commitments.
CONTINUE READINGThe Latest Step in Trump’s War on Science
OMB’s proposed new rule seeks to politicize research funding across the entire federal government
Last week, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposed a sweeping new regulation of grants across the federal government. Here are two quick takeaways. First, OMB gives every sign of realizing it is on shaky legal ground. Second, the OMB rule seeks to continue Trump’s 2025 campaign to rip apart research funding. The goals of that campaign were to destabilize scientific research; squelch research on forbidden topics like climate change, clean energy, race, and gender; and inhibit academic criticism of the Administration. The legal basis for the 2025 campaign was dubious, resulting in serious litigation setbacks. OMB is now trying to create a foundation for making the war on science permanent.
CONTINUE READINGThe Environment is a System, Not an Array.
In 1969, Barry Commoner summed up much of environmental science in six words. Today’s conservatives don’t get it.
People have an intuitive tendency to focus on an action’s immediate direct effects. The same intuition leads us to downplay effects that are indirect, long-range, and cumulative. This can lead us astray, as it has the Supreme Court, when dealing with impacts on environmental systems. Writing at the outset of the modern environmental world, biologist Barry Commoner tried to crystalize what was known about the environment into four crisply phrased laws. The first law read simply: “Everything is connected to everything else.” What we have learned since Commoner published The Closing Circle in 1969 has only confirmed that insight.
This interconnected means that the environment is a system (really, a nested set of systems), where interactions are paramount. It’s not just an array of different things happening independently in different places or times. That’s true, as we’ve learned, not only of the environment but the global economy to which it is linked and of the geopolitical realm linked to that.
CONTINUE READINGGames Deregulators Play
Here are the five moves the Trump EPA consistently uses to justify deregulation.
If you start reading the Trump Administration’s arguments for deregulation, a repetitive feeling soon sets in. Every deregulation is different, of course, but there are stock arguments that seem to surface again and again.These arguments have a distortion effect, blurring the benefits of regulations while magnifying their costs.
CONTINUE READINGScience and Democracy
The scientific process is crucial for a well-functioning democracy.
Beyond its utility, science also models some important features of democracy. It aspires to a marketplace of ideas in which everyone with the needed background knowledge can participate, and in which conclusions are based on debate and data rather than power. As a recent D.C. Circuit case illustrates, the law calls on government agencies to make decisions in the same, considering all the scientific evidence and arguments, then providing a reasoned explanation for its decision.
CONTINUE READINGThe Compact for Censorship
The so-called compact is a thin front for massive incursion into free speech and academic freedom.
A key First Amendment principle prohibits the government from discriminating on the basis of viewpoint. This Compact contains a string of viewpoint-based rules. That’s a threat to any view the government doesn’t like, which definitely includes a belief in climate change or the benefits of renewable energy. Because violation of the agreement triggers draconian sanctions, and the Administration is the judge of what constitutes a violation, the chilling effect will be tremendous.
CONTINUE READINGIn His Own Words: The Unitary Executive Explains Science Stuff to Us
Inside the government, the war on science seems to be over, and ignorance has won.
In the past couple of days, the President has given us the benefit of his wisdom on highly technical issues. It seems clear that, as far as the government is concerned, the war on science is over, and ignorance has won.
I’m going to let the President make my case for me. Below are excerpts of Trump’s explanations of vaccine policy, autism causation, and climate science.
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