webodec3ARCHIVEPreview
Open in TheBrain

tony cox

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">mofo on covid partic, primary&nbsp; --> kid killer, EJ
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see CASAC and enstrom, API</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see stanley young NAS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">might be some 2x
</font><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CPI</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the all-expenses-paid event hosted by George Mason University’s Law & Economics Center in Arlington, Virginia, served another purpose: It was the first of several seminars designed to promote “skepticism” of scientific evidence among likely candidates for the 140-plus federal judgeships President Trump will fill over the next four years.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Louis Anthony “Tony” Cox Jr.</b></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read more about how air quality is the new frontier for climate-change skeptics long tied to API »</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The lone science instructor was&nbsp;<b>Louis Anthony Cox Jr.</b>, a risk analyst with deep industry ties whose recent appointment as chair of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee drew condemnation in public-health circles.<b style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">&nbsp;Since 1988, Cox has consulted for the American Petroleum Institute</b>, a lobby group that spent millions to dispute the cancer-causing properties of benzene, an ingredient in gasoline, and is now working to discredit the science on smog-causing ozone. He’s also testified on behalf of the chemical industry and done research for tobacco giant Philip Morris.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">For a $4,000 honorarium, Cox delivered two closed-door lectures at George Mason: “a primer on the scientific method,” followed by a session aimed at “understanding what science can and cannot do.”&nbsp; Included in his presentation were slides urging judges to be wary of EPA science on f<b>ine particles </b>— a pollutant he has been researching for API.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The symposium included a “mandatory” dinner at Capitol Hill’s upscale Charlie Palmer Steak, whose website says it “moves the political power meetings out of the back room and into private dining spaces.” Events such as the symposium are one way Big Oil is trying to impart free-market values to judges and attorneys general as the industry gears up for legal battles on multiple fronts.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Based in George Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School,&nbsp;</b>the Law & Economics Center espouses a free-market approach to policy. A 2013 investigation by the Center for Public Integrity found that the libertarian think tank hosted more judicial conferences than any other university program in the nation, fueled by conservative and big-business donors.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Over the past two years, roughly $4.5 million of $18.6 million in contributions to the Law & Economics Center came from oil and gas interests, including Koch Industries, ConocoPhillips,<b>&nbsp;Exxon</b>Mobil and&nbsp;<b>API,</b>&nbsp;which represents more than 650 corporations.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The center claims to have trained more than 5,000 state and federal judges, including three sitting Supreme Court justices. Almost 1,000 state attorneys general and their staff attorneys have attended its programs</span>.&nbsp;<b>Its advisory board includes three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit</b>, widely considered the nation’s second-most powerful court and, often, the final arbiter for federal administrative law cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">...</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘Unwarranted and exaggerated’</font></font></font></font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When<b>&nbsp;Gregory Conko&nbsp;</b>began organizing the&nbsp;<b>October judges’ symposium at George Mason University,&nbsp;</b>he wanted to ensure that participants left knowing science’s limitations. “Even good science cannot always answer the questions regulatory agencies ask,” he wrote to<b> Louis “Tony” Cox, the risk analyst,</b></span>&nbsp;in a May email obtained by the Center for Public Integrity through a records request. “Even the best science is not capable of yielding normative judgments about whether something is necessarily good or bad, safe or dangerous, etc."</div><div>
</div><div><b>Conko headed the Competitive Enterprise Institute — a libertarian think tank known for fostering climate-change denial — before joining Mason’s Law & Economics Center last winter.</b> Before Conko settled on Cox to lead the seminar, Nancy Beck, a former policy director for the American Chemistry Council who is now the EPA’s top official on toxic chemicals, was a candidate, emails show<b>. So was Michael Gough, a toxicologist&nbsp;</b>with ties to the tobacco industry and oil-backed climate-change denial groups. Conko declined requests for an interview.</div><div>
</div><div>“Even good science cannot always answer the questions regulatory agencies ask.”</div><div>
</div><div>Like&nbsp;<b>Beck</b>&nbsp;and Gough, Cox has championed narratives amenable to industry’s bottom line but not supported by mainstream science.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;In 2015, Cox said that “no detectable public health benefits” would result from a stricter EPA <b>ozone </b>limit.</span>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">His testimony was cited in an op-ed by API President Jack Gerard, who ended the column with a warning: “Economic recovery is far from complete, and saddling the nation’s job creators with burdensome new restrictions threatens to deal another blow to the middle-class economy.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>What Gerard didn’t mention was Cox’s history with the institute</b>, </span>which spans decades. At the time the column was published, Cox was receiving funding from both the institute and the <b>American Chemistry Council, </b>which also represents petrochemical companies.</div><div>
</div><div><b>In an interview, Cox denied that industry funding influences his findings</b>. He criticized EPA science as flawed, saying it assumes links that haven’t been proven.</div><div>
</div><div>“I see a tremendous lack of clarity when agencies say there’s reason to believe X causes Y,” Cox said. “The proposition that the science is settled — ‘We don’t need to look at this’ — it’s a bad proposition.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>Cox holds a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science </b>and a master’s degree in operations research, which focuses on decision-making — both from MIT.</div><div>
</div><div>Asked about his involvement in the George Mason symposium, Cox said that “judges in particular should have a healthy skepticism, especially about claims of causality.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>Fellow risk analyst and friend Adam Finkel counts Cox among an elite few who have the credentials for risk analysi</b>s, an amalgam of health sciences, economics, policy-making and statistics. But their views on what should or shouldn’t be regulated couldn’t be further apart.</div><div>
</div><div>A former director of health standards programs at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Finkel has spent his career trying to strengthen worker protections against toxic substances. “<b>It’s disappointing to me that someone as smart as he is can make such a stupid mistake,” Finkel, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan, said of Cox. “I don’t ascribe evil intent to him; he’s just lost his way.”</b></div><div>
</div><div>The weight of evidence, Finkel said, isn’t on Cox’s side. “He’s not just saying, ‘We should wait for the right answer.’ He’s saying, ‘We should be more protective of the economy than of human health.’”</div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">2006 warner robbins won, cox finalist</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px; line-height: 1.76471; color: rgb(32, 34, 37); font-family: Lora, Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">FINALIST</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px; line-height: 1.76471; color: rgb(32, 34, 37); font-family: Lora, Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s; font-weight: 600;">Team:</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s;" />Animal Health Institute<br style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s; font-weight: 600;">Project:</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s;"><a href="http://interfaces.journal.informs.org/cgi/content/abstract/37/1/22" target="self" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(3, 76, 126); cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">Quantifying Human Health Risks from Animal Antimicrobial</a></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s; font-weight: 600;">Members</span>:<br style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s;" />Animal Health Institute<br style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-property: box-shadow, text-shadow, position, display, color, background-color, border-color, font-size, min-height, max-height, opacity; transition-duration: 0s;" />Cox Associates</p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://cox-associates.com/Coxbio.htm 404 --></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">COX ASSOCIATES 503 Franklin St., Denver, CO, 80218. Ph 303-388-1778; Fax 303-388-0609</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">www.cox-associates.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LOUIS ANTHONY (TONY) COX, JR., PH.D, FOUNDER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox Associates, 503 Franklin Street, Denver, Colorado, 80218</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(303)-898-1814 (Phone); (303)-388-0609 (Fax); tcoxdenver@<b>aol.com</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tony Cox is President of Cox Associates (www.cox-associates.com) and its new subsidiary, MoirAI,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">a Denver-based AI/ML and analytics company specializing in computational toxicology, public and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">occupational health, safety, and environmental risk analysis; epidemiology; policy analytics; and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">customer behavior modeling.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since 1986, Cox Associates’ analysts and scientists have applied</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">advanced analytics to measurably improve health and environment risk assessment and decision-making</font></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">&nbsp;for public and private sector clients. In 2006, Cox Associates was inducted into the Edelman</span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Academy of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), recognizing</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">outstanding real-world achievements in the practice of operations research and the management</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sciences. In 2012, Dr. Cox was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) “For</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">applications of operations research and risk analysis to significant national problems.” He has served</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">as a member of the National Academies' Board on Mathematical Sciences and their Applications</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(BMSA) (2012-2016) and as <b>Chair of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) for the</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)</b>.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Cox holds a Ph.D. in Risk Analysis and an S.M. in Operations Research, both from MIT; an AB</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">from Harvard University; and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program. He is Associate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Professor of Business Analytics at the University of Colorado, Denver, where he has also has served</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">as Honorary Full Professor of Mathematics lecturing on applied statistics, data science, decision and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">risk analysis, biomathematics, health risk modeling, and causality; on the Faculties of the Center for</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Computational Mathematics and the Center for Computational Biology; and as Clinical Professor of</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Biostatistics and Informatics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He has served as</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an expert in risk analysis on many National Academies, World Health Organization, EPA, USDA, and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">other agency projects, committees, and advisory boards.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Cox is Editor-in-Chief of Risk Analysis: An International Journal. He is Area Editor for Real</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">World Applications for the Journal of Heuristics, and is on the Editorial Boards of Decision</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Analysis and the International Journal of Operations Research and Information Systems. He is a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fellow and an<b> Edelman Laureate</b> of INFORMS, a member of the American Statistical Association</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(ASA), and a lifetime Fellow of the<b> Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)</b>. In 2015 and 2018, his research</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">applying machine learning to high-throughput screening data won Best Published Papers awards from</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the <b>Society of Toxicology Risk Assessment </b>Specialty Section. His previous research has won</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the Society of Toxicology’s Outstanding Published Paper in Risk Assessment Award and the Society</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">for Risk Analysis Outstanding Risk Practitioner Award. In 2008, his solution to a challenge on</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Statistical Methods to Predict Clinical Response” won an InnoCentive Award.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Cox has taught many graduate and professional courses in risk analysis, decision analysis, and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">advanced analytics. He has authored and co-authored over 200 journal articles and book chapters on</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">these fields. His most recent books are Quantitative Risk Analysis of Air Pollution Health Effects</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(Springer 2021), Causal Analytics for Applied Risk Analysis (Springer, 2018), Breakthroughs in</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Decision Science and Risk Analysis (Wiley, 2015), Improving Risk Analysis (Springer, 2013), and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science (Wiley, 2011), which Dr.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox co-edited. He has over a dozen U.S. patents on applications of artificial intelligence, signal</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">processing, statistics and operations research. His current research interests include computational</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">statistical methods for causal inference in public and occupational health risk analysis, AI/ML for</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">decision optimization under uncertainty, and learning in uncertain and changing environments.</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>omg AI</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><article id="post-427" class="post-427 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-news" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: double; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><header class="entry-header" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/causally-explainable-decisions/" title="Permalink to New article: Information Structures for Causally Explainable Decisions" rel="bookmark" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">New article: Information Structures for Causally Explainable Decisions</font></a></h2></header><div class="entry-summary" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><div class="excerpt-thumb" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For an AI agent to make trustworthy decision recommendations under uncertainty on behalf of human principals, it should be able to explain&nbsp;why&nbsp;its recommended decisions make preferred outcomes more likely and what risks they entail. Such rationales use causal models to link potential courses of action to resulting outcome probabilities. They reflect an understanding of possible…&nbsp;<span class="read-more" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/causally-explainable-decisions/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Read More »</a></span></font></p></div><footer class="entry-meta" style="margin: 24px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.84615;" /></div></article><article id="post-422" class="post-422 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-news" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: double; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; hyphens: auto;"><header class="entry-header" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/book-quantitative-risk-analysis/" title="Permalink to New book available: Quantitative Risk Analysis of Air Pollution Health Effects" rel="bookmark" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">New book available: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Quantitative Risk Analysis of Air Pollution Health Effects</span></font></a></h2></header><div class="entry-summary" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><div class="excerpt-thumb" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This 2021 book from Cox Associates highlights recent advances in causal analytics, machine learning, and risk analysis models and methods to determine whether and by how much reducing exposures affects human health risks. It shows how to apply modern data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning, causal analytics, mathematical modeling, and risk analysis to better…&nbsp;<span class="read-more" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/book-quantitative-risk-analysis/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Read More »</a></span></font></p></div><footer class="entry-meta" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 24px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.84615;" /></div></article><article id="post-394" class="post-394 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-news" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: double; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><header class="entry-header" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/informs-fellow/" title="Permalink to Tony Cox has been elected an INFORMS Fellow" rel="bookmark" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Tony Cox has been elected an INFORMS Fellow</font></a></h2></header><div class="entry-summary" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><div class="excerpt-thumb" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tony Cox has been elected an INFORMS Fellow “for significant research, practice, and service contributions to homeland security, health and environmental risk analysis, telecommunications, and the modeling of causality.” Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) are examples of outstanding lifetime achievement in operations research and the management sciences.&nbsp;https://www.sra.org/news/tony-cox-receives-informs-fellow-award</font></p></div><footer class="entry-meta" style="margin: 24px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.84615;" /></div></article><article id="post-367" class="post-367 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-news" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: double; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><header class="entry-header" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/book-caara/" title="Permalink to New book available: Causal Analytics for Applied Risk Analysis" rel="bookmark" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">New book available: Causal Analytics for Applied Risk Analysis</font></a></h2></header><div class="entry-summary" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><div class="excerpt-thumb" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A new book Causal Analytics for Applied Risk Analysis &nbsp;from Cox Associates explains how causal analytics can revolutionize data science and decision-making by using experience and data to quantify how different choices affect probabilities of various outcomes.&nbsp; This provides the crucial link between actions and their consequences that is so often missing in predictive analytics…&nbsp;<span class="read-more" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/book-caara/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Read More »</a></span></font></p></div><footer class="entry-meta" style="margin: 24px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.84615;" /></div></article><article id="post-329" class="post-329 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-news" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: double; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><header class="entry-header" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/sbca-workshop/" title="Permalink to Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis Workshop" rel="bookmark" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis Workshop</font></a></h2></header><div class="entry-summary" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><div class="excerpt-thumb" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How can modern causal analytics improve evidence-based policy analyses, decisions, and retrospective evaluations? &nbsp;This was the theme of a March 15 workshop at the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis (SBCA). &nbsp;Participants were enthusiastic: a typical response was “I was very impressed with the causal analytics workshop at the SBCA conference. I am already thinking of applications…&nbsp;<span class="read-more" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/sbca-workshop/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Read More »</a></span></font></p></div><footer class="entry-meta" style="margin: 24px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.84615;" /></div></article><article id="post-258" class="post-258 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-news" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: double; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><header class="entry-header" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/society-for-risk-analysis-webinar/" title="Permalink to CAT Webinar available" rel="bookmark" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">CAT Webinar available</font></a></h2></header><div class="entry-summary" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><div class="excerpt-thumb" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Cox presented CAT at a Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Webinar on June 29, 2016.&nbsp; Download slides here and a recording of the presentation here.</font></p></div><footer class="entry-meta" style="margin: 24px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.84615;" /></div></article><article id="post-254" class="post-254 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-news" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: double; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><header class="entry-header" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/cat-extended-to-support-python/" title="Permalink to CAT extended to support Python" rel="bookmark" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">CAT extended to support Python</font></a></h2></header><div class="entry-summary" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><div class="excerpt-thumb" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In July 2016, the CAT platform was extended to support Python 3.5.2 in addition to R.&nbsp;For data scientists, CAT now provides a single platform for doing both R and Python from Excel spreadsheets. &nbsp;To upgrade from the base version of CAT to the new “proCAT” version that also supports Python and contains enhanced non-parametric analyses,…&nbsp;<span class="read-more" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/cat-extended-to-support-python/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Read More »</a></span></font></p></div><footer class="entry-meta" style="margin: 24px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.84615;" /></div></article><article id="post-47" class="post-47 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-news" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: double; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><header class="entry-header" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/drcoxpresents/" title="Permalink to Dr. Cox presents CAT at GWU" rel="bookmark" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Dr. Cox presents CAT at GWU</font></a></h2></header><div class="entry-summary" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><div class="excerpt-thumb" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Cox presents the Causal Analytics Toolkit (CAT) at the GW Regulatory Studies Center to audiences concerned with improving the soundness of scientific inferences in regulations.&nbsp;Powerpoint slides are available here. More info can be found here.</font></p></div><footer class="entry-meta" style="margin: 24px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.84615;" /></div></article><article id="post-44" class="post-44 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-news" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: double; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><header class="entry-header" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/release1/" title="Permalink to Causal Analytics Toolkit Available" rel="bookmark" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Causal Analytics Toolkit Available</font></a></h2></header></article></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">03 Franklin St, Denver, CO 80218</span></font></div><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Phone: 303.388.1778
Fax: 303.388.0609
Email:&nbsp;<a href="mailto:info@cox-associates.com" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">info@cox-associates.com</a></font></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox Associates, Inc. includes the best minds available with extensive expertise in &nbsp;telecommunications, insurance, financial services and health risk analysis. We use our unique statistical and mathematical modeling approach to make the world a better place &nbsp;and make companies more profitable. &nbsp; We have over 10 U.S. and Foreign patents, over &nbsp;100 publications in the field and an international reputation.&nbsp; Cox Associates modeling techniques have been credited with saving clients over $100 &nbsp;Million.</font></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to our team of employees, we are advised by a number of external&nbsp;industry leaders. These individuals are some of the best minds currently&nbsp;working in each of the vertical markets we participate in.</font></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CORPORATE LEADERS</font></strong></p><div id="xr_xr" class="xr_ap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="xr_xri" class="xr_ap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><ul style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: outside square; line-height: 1.7;"><li class="Heading_2" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="xr_tl Normal_text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/index_htm_files/Coxbio.pdf" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tony Cox</font></a></span></li><li class="Heading_2" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="xr_tl Normal_text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/index_htm_files/ricci.pdf" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Paolo Ricci</font></a></span></li><li class="Heading_2" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="xr_tl Normal_text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/index_htm_files/Jennife1.pdf" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jennifer Sanchez</font></a></span></li><li class="Heading_2" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="xr_tl Normal_text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/index_htm_files/Kathleen%20MacNeal%20Biographical%20Sketch.pdf" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathy MacNeal</font></a></span></li><li class="Heading_2" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="xr_tl Normal_text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/index_htm_files/Drlu.pdf" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Leonard Lu</font></a></span></li><li class="Heading_2" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="xr_tl Normal_text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/index_htm_files/Douglas%20Popken%20Biographical%20Sketch.pdf" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Doug Popken</font></a></span></li><li class="Heading_2" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div id="xr_xr" class="xr_ap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div id="xr_xri" class="xr_ap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="Heading_2" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="xr_tl Normal_text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://cox-associates.com/index_htm_files/Djangir%20Babayev%20Biographical%20Sketch.pdf" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Djangir Babayev</font></a></span></div></div></div></li></ul></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/fueling-dissent/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/fueling-dissent/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many? twt</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FUELING DISSENT</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">How the oil industry set out to undercut clean air</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After casting doubt on climate change for decades, industry consultants have turned their attention to air pollution</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Illustration by Robert Fresson</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by Jie Jenny Zou</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tom Dart of Guardian US contributed reporting</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>December 12, 2017</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SAN ANTONIO, Texas ― On sunny days, when his classmates at St. John Bosco Elementary School run out to play, Gabriel Rosales heads to the school nurse for a dose of Albuterol. The fine mist opens his airways, relaxing the muscles in his chest. Without it, recess could leave the 9-year-old gasping for breath. He gets a second dose at the end of the day before heading home.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Over the past year, Gabriel’s asthma has worsened. Visits to the emergency room, shortened trips to the park, and reliance on inhalers have become his new norm. “It got to the point where I couldn’t even leave him with anybody,” said his father, Gabe, who works as a consultant to the National Association of Public Employees, a workers’ advocacy group, and a seasonal field director of the Bexar County Democratic Party. “One time he almost looked blue.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gabriel’s health is deteriorating alongside air quality in San Antonio, where oil and gas development, a hotter climate and a growing population have combined to spell misery for a city that once boasted clean air compared to other Texas metropolitan areas. Part of the problem lies southeast of the city in the Eagle Ford Shale, a 400-mile-long hub of hydraulic fracturing that unleashes microscopic particles and smog-causing, ground-level ozone.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"><b>The state’s environmental regulator — the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality — hasn’t made things better.&nbsp;</b>In fact, it’s followed in the footsteps of Big Oil’s biggest lobby, the American Petroleum Institute, which has forestalled progress on ozone for decades. Using consultants also hired by<b>&nbsp;API,&nbsp;</b>the commission has spent millions of taxpayer dollars in an effort to undercut scientific evidence linking particulate matter and ozone with bronchitis, asthma and premature death.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Read more about API's history of climate denial and its ties to the White House ]</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Air quality is the new frontier for climate-change skeptics long tied to API. The institute has fueled uncertainty on climate by producing what critics call misleading scientific and economic studies. Now, by attempting to discredit established research on ozone and fine particles, API and its cadre of doubters are trying to undermine the Clean Air Act — the landmark U.S. law credited with saving millions of lives. Working in concert with other free-market groups, they’re taking their message to Capitol Hill. API officials did not grant interview requests from the Center for Public Integrity.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Residents of San Antonio’s low-income, mostly Latino neighborhoods — like Hillcrest, where Gabriel Rosales lives — bear the brunt of poor air quality even if they aren’t in ozone hot spots, said Mario Bravo, an outreach specialist with the Environmental Defense Fund. “They have less access to health care,” Bravo said. “They have less access to transportation to get to the health-care providers.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">‘A lot like climate’</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In June, two peer-reviewed studies trumpeted a conclusion at odds with years of solid science: fine-particle pollution long linked to premature death and chronic illness isn’t as dangerous as health advocates contend. If true, the findings would call into question health benefits claimed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has set ever-tightening air-quality standards.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There was a catch, however. The articles — which were published within a week of one another — appeared in Critical Reviews in Toxicology and Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, two journals favored by industry consultants alleged to promote pay-for-play science. And both studies were funded by API, a trade group that has spent $40 million since 2013 to lobby Congress on topics ranging from taxes to global warming.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Twitter</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“Our study is published...air quality does not kill. $600 million of EPA junk science up in smoke,” climate-change skeptic and Donald Trump acolyte Steve Milloy tweeted in June, linking to the Regulatory Toxicology article</b>. During a congressional luncheon a month later, the former coal executive took credit for conceiving the study before turning it over to friend,&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">S. Stanley Young, and two other statisticians</span>, who authored the final article. No mention of Milloy’s involvement is made in the publication.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Read more about how Big Oil is trying to sow skepticism of science among judges ]</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Some of the same data were used in the Critical Reviews article published by Louis Anthony </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">“Tony” Cox Jr</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">.,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> which also disputed the link between fine particles and mortality. Cox, a biostatistician from Colorado,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">&nbsp;started consulting for API in 1988.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cox disclosed that his paper “benefitted from close proofreading and copy-editing suggestions from API” but denied in an interview that his findings were influenced.</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;In November, he was named the next chair of the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, drawing criticism from groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The science on particle pollution, much like the science on global warming, is exhaustive and widely accepted, with thousands of studies pointing to serious health implications. The World Health Organization notes that particulate matter “affects more people than any other pollutant,” with effects observed at even “very low concentrations.” The particles — found in automotive and industrial exhaust and smaller than one-fifth of the width of a strand of hair — form a toxic mix with ozone that lodges deep in the lungs<b>. Unlike Cox, most researchers are no longer fixated on whether this form of pollution is fundamentally dangerous; they worry instead about whether it can cause — not just exacerbate — chronic illness.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Attacking the science is one way of undermining the Clean Air Act, said John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which advocates for more protective air-quality standards. The Clean Air Act is routinely hailed as one of the most cost-effective federal laws, even by business groups. In 2015, the EPA estimated that the law will have saved the U.S. economy $2 trillion by 2020 while costing $65 billion to implement. About 85 percent of the act’s benefits come from reducing fine-particle pollution, which raises the risk of early death. Opponents of the law “deny that air pollution is deadly … or even harmful in order to try to pretend that no benefits are delivered,” Walke said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Steve Milloy</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Milloy’s July luncheon at the Rayburn House Office Building — billed as a “congressional staff and media briefing” — was little more than a plug for his latest book, “Scare Pollution: Why and How to Fix the EPA,”</b>&nbsp;which condemns the “echo chamber of deceptive science” on ozone and fine particles. The event was hosted by Myron Ebell, who chairs the Cooler Heads Coalition, a climate-skeptics’ group that began as an alliance of free-market think tanks. “It’s a lot like climate,” Milloy told the audience. “This stuff is pulled out of thin air.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“It’s a lot like climate... This stuff is pulled out of thin air.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Reached for comment, Milloy said the study is not an attack on the Clean Air Act but part of his 20-year effort to expose the EPA’s “garbage-in, garbage-out” air pollution research</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. He denied having any formal ties to API.&nbsp;</span>“I am very, very disappointed in the American Petroleum Institute and all the oil companies for not defending their products, for leaving the science to people like me,” he said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Young, who authored the study, stood behind its findings and disputed the idea that industry funding presents ethical conflicts. His study data are publicly available, he said, but the EPA isn’t as transparent. Ebell agreed, accusing the agency of using “junk science” to justify air-quality and greenhouse-gas regulation.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Despite their misgivings about the EPA, all three men have become tethered to the agency. Earlier this year, Ebell oversaw the EPA transition for Trump, leading a group that included Milloy. Young was named to the EPA’s Science Advisory Board in October</b>.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., co-founder of the Senate Climate Action Task Force, complained that such appointments have become all too common.&nbsp; “These people were fringe fanatics and industry stooges fighting on behalf of the industry a propaganda war against science,” he said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Milloy and Ebell were listed among the authors of a $2 million plan to amplify uncertainty in climate science — as revealed in a 1998 API memo leaked to The New York Times. Both say the memo grew out of an API brainstorming session that never resulted in concrete action, with Milloy calling it “just a big joke.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Years before, API had refuted the very concept of global warming under President Charles DiBona</b>, who joined the institute shortly after a stint as energy policy advisor to Richard&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Nixon in the 1970s. White House communications show that DiBona regularly met with then-API President Frank Ikard, a close friend of Nixon’s</span>, before becoming Ikard’s deputy in 1974.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">“You heard that a scientific consensus now exists,” DiBona said during API’s annual meeting in 1996. “This claim is beyond misleading; it is dead wrong.”</span>&nbsp;He borrowed an analogy from MIT physicist Richard Lindzen, who likened climate models to Ouija boards. By 2003, a group of scientists funded by API had turned out the first of several studies characterizing the warming trend as a natural phenomenon.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The same year, however, the United Nations was holding its ninth conference on climate change —&nbsp; focusing on how to mitigate warming. In 2001, an international consortium of scientists had delivered its third report on the trend, reaffirming findings that climate change was real and manmade.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Reached by phone recently, DiBona declined to answer any questions about the organization he led for 18 years. Months after retiring from API in 1997, DiBona joined the board of Halliburton</b>, an oilfield-service company then headed by future vice president Dick Cheney. DiBona is now an API honorary lifetime director and an<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;advisory chairman for a mining investment company based in the Cayman Islands.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In recent years, fringe views espoused by API have found a receptive audience in U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas</b>), whose climate-denial credentials rival those of Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Since Smith became chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology in 2013, the panel has handed out dozens of subpoenas — many to scientists at regulatory agencies and environmental groups — aiming to debunk climate research.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Smith — whose district includes San Antonio — has opened the committee’s hearing rooms to Cooler Heads Coalition events such as Milloy’s book promotion and briefings that urged the United States to drop out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. In February, he reissued a controversial subpoena to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is investigating ExxonMobil’s historical knowledge on climate change. Since he joined Congress in 1989, Smith’s top campaign donors have been from the oil and gas sector, which gave him at least $764,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Smith did not respond to requests for comment.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">In 2016, Influence Map, a nonprofit environmental research group, estimated that ExxonMobil had spent about $27 million on “climate obstruction” lobbying and advertising campaigns. That amount was dwarfed by the $65 million API spent on similar efforts, the group found. ExxonMobil is one of the oldest and largest API members.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>‘Tired, old industry argument’</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In July, the House passed a bill targeting what its proponents called “job-killing regulations” — namely, bedrock air-quality standards. Its lead author was&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rep. Pete Olson,&nbsp;</span>a Republican from the ozone-plagued Houston area. All but four of the 229 “aye” votes were cast by Republicans, Lamar Smith among them.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Under Olson’s bill, states would have until 2025 to meet the EPA’s latest ozone limit, which was supposed to take effect in October</span>. The agency, which is legally required to update air standards to keep pace with evolving science, would be obligated to review rules for pollutants once a decade, as opposed to once every five years.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The 2017 bill is the latest iteration of a proposal Olson first floated in 2015, seeking to delay regulation of ozone</b>. The same day his bill passed, 144 trade groups, including regional offshoots of API, pledged their support in a letter to Congress. Oil and gas interests have been Olson’s top political contributors, donating more than $1 million to his campaigns since 2007. A Senate version of the bill has not come up for a vote.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In an email, Olson’s office wrote that the congressman “believes the Clean Air Act is critically important” but has “fundamental concerns” about Texas’ ability to meet tighter standards. Pollution control, the email said, “can be done rationally and with an eye on our economy.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>By law, the EPA is not allowed to consider cost when setting ozone standards, but that hasn’t stopped API and other industry groups from injecting economics into the policy debate</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Much like scientists for hire, economists have provided API with grist to challenge regulations</span>. Armed with seemingly authoritative studies from firms such as&nbsp;<b>NERA Economic Consulting,</b>&nbsp;t<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">he institute has recast issues such as action on climate change as reckless moves that could tank the U.S. economy. NERA, whose clients include API collaborators such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Chemistry Council, was co-founded by Irwin Stelzer, an economist who works at the Hudson Institute, a free-market think tank.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Such studies, like the NERA report Trump cited when he announced the U.S. exit from the Paris climate agreement earlier this year, can be “extremely misleading,” often tallying every conceivable cost and ignoring every possible benefit, said<b>&nbsp;Ben Franta</b>, a Stanford University researcher investigating API’s climate activities. Because data underlying these reports are proprietary, Franta said, in many cases they can neither be verified or debunked. What’s left are unsupported arguments: “New ozone rules could be the most expensive ever,” reads an API webpage linking to dozens of NERA findings.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has taken a tack similar to API’<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">s.&nbsp;</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since 2013, the TCEQ has paid NERA more than $870,000 f</span>or economic research on ozone — a topic the firm studied earlier for API. More than $2.2 million in taxpayer funds have also been spent on contracts with Gradient — a consultancy previously hired by API to question the benefits of a stricter ozone limit. The TCEQ declined to comment on this story but on its website describes its mission as protecting the “state’s public health and natural resources consistent with sustainable economic development.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Anne E. Smith, a managing director at NERA,&nbsp; did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment. She was among several industry-friendly voices at a 2015 TCEQ ozone workshop in Austin led by Michael Honeycutt,&nbsp; the agency’s director of toxicology. Other speakers included Gradient scientists, the editor of Critical Reviews in Toxicology, industry toxicologist Michael Dourson and air researcher Robert Phalen, known for saying the air “is a little too clean for optimum health.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The group’s findings were later referenced by Honeycutt at a House Science Committee&nbsp;</b>hearing, where he argued against a tighter EPA ozone standard. Honeycutt said the risks posed by the pollutant were “small” and any change could discourage people from “outdoor exercise.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Speakers at the Austin workshop have risen to prominence in the Trump administration. This fall, Honeycutt, Anne Smith, Dourson and Phalen were all named to key EPA science positions as either advisers or staff. Their fringe views on ozone — championed by API — have alarmed public-health advocates and run counter to the EPA’s own findings. The agency strengthened its ozone standard in 2015 after reviewing more than 1,000 new studies.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Economics has long figured into API’s strategy to derail ozone rule</b>s. In 1971, the newly formed EPA set the ozone standard at 80 parts per billion, but in 1979 took an unexpected U-turn and weakened it to 120 ppb — angering industry and environmentalists alike. The latter called the reversal scientifically indefensible and accused the EPA of prioritizing economics over health. API promptly sued the EPA, with President DiBona claiming the relaxed standards would still cost “billions of dollars without significantly improving the quality of the environment or the health of the public.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Spurred by lawsuits from the American Lung Association that compelled it to update air standards based on the latest science, the EPA reverted to its original 80 ppb ozone limit in 1997. The cap is now at 70 ppb, though even that number may not be protective enough, as some research has found health effects at 60 ppb.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Nonetheless, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt — a former Oklahoma attorney general with deep ties to oil and gas — tried to keep the 70 ppb standard from taking effec</b>t<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. He backed off on the delay after 16 state attorneys&nbsp; [teAm BLUE] general sued the agency in August. In a lawsuit filed this month, however, environmental groups accused the EPA of failing to enforce the rule.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Pruitt had put forth what Dr. Greg Diette — a lung specialist at Johns Hopkins University who has testified in favor of tighter ozone standards — calls “a tired, old industry argument. They say, ‘It’s going to put us out of business,’ and it doesn’t,” Diette said. “All this stuff always comes down to who has to pay.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But not all costs are economic. High ozone days are the hardest for Diette’s patients. “It can be terrifying — it’s the sensation of not being able to breathe,” he said. “Some feel as if they're going to pass out. Some feel as if they're going to die.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Asthmatics can do little more than hide indoors in an air-conditioned environment. The only other option, Diette said, is to move.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Relocating isn’t possible for the Rosales family of San Antonio, who are uninsured and struggling to keep up with the cost of Gabriel’s medications. The air he breathes is expected to degrade further as oil prices rebound and drilling picks up in the Eagle Ford.</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/venue-of-last-resort/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/venue-of-last-resort/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">VENUE OF LAST RESORT [pun?]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wave of climate lawsuits threatens the future of Big Oil</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Fossil-fuel interests are working to seed the courts, long viewed as apolitical</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Illustration by Robert Fresson</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by Jie Jenny Zou, Chris Young</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">December 12,&nbsp;<b>2017</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In early October, 22 state and federal judges hailing from Honolulu to Albany got a crash course in scientific literacy and economics.The three-day symposium was billed as a way to help the judges better scrutinize evidence used to defend government regulations.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the all-expenses-paid event hosted by George Mason University’s Law & Economics Center in Arlington, Virginia, served another purpose: It was the first of several seminars designed to promote “skepticism” of scientific evidence among likely candidates for the 140-plus federal judgeships President Trump will fill over the next four years.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Louis Anthony “Tony” Cox Jr.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Robert Fresson</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read more about how air quality is the new frontier for climate-change skeptics long tied to API »</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The lone science instructor was&nbsp;<b>Louis Anthony Cox Jr.</b>, a risk analyst with deep industry ties whose recent appointment as chair of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee drew condemnation in public-health circles.<b style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">&nbsp;Since 1988, Cox has consulted for the American Petroleum Institute</b>, a lobby group that spent millions to dispute the cancer-causing properties of benzene, an ingredient in gasoline, and is now working to discredit the science on smog-causing ozone. He’s also testified on behalf of the chemical industry and done research for tobacco giant Philip Morris.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">For a $4,000 honorarium, Cox delivered two closed-door lectures at George Mason: “a primer on the scientific method,” followed by a session aimed at “understanding what science can and cannot do.”&nbsp; Included in his presentation were slides urging judges to be wary of EPA science on fine particles — a pollutant he has been researching for API.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The symposium included a “mandatory” dinner at Capitol Hill’s upscale Charlie Palmer Steak, whose website says it “moves the political power meetings out of the back room and into private dining spaces.” Events such as the symposium are one way Big Oil is trying to impart free-market values to judges and attorneys general as the industry gears up for legal battles on multiple fronts.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Based in George Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School,&nbsp;</b>the Law & Economics Center espouses a free-market approach to policy. A 2013 investigation by the Center for Public Integrity found that the libertarian think tank hosted more judicial conferences than any other university program in the nation, fueled by conservative and big-business donors. Over the past two years, roughly $4.5 million of $18.6 million in contributions to the Law & Economics Center came from oil and gas interests, including Koch Industries, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and&nbsp;<b>API,</b>&nbsp;which represents more than 650 corporations.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The center claims to have trained more than 5,000 state and federal judges, including three sitting Supreme Court justices. Almost 1,000 state attorneys general and their staff attorneys have attended its programs. Its advisory board includes three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, widely considered the nation’s second-most powerful court and, often, the final arbiter for federal administrative law cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a White House riven by discord and staff departures, judicial appointments have been a bright spot.&nbsp; Senate Republicans have embraced the chance to fill a glut of vacancies, helping Trump install more conservative judges and potentially transform the legal landscape for decades to come. Once confirmed, a federal judge can serve for life, presiding over an average of 500 to 600 cases a year.&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);"><b>A Washington trade group with 300-plus employees, API&nbsp;</b>has spent more than $40 million to lobby Congress since 2013</span>. But the courts have also been a focal point for API, which has spent the better part of a century helping the oil and gas industry pivot from being a prime antitrust target to being a proactive litigation force. The institute, along with other free-market trade groups, has routinely injected itself into cases in an attempt to shape policy or stall government initiatives. API officials did not grant interview requests from the Center for Public Integrity.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Time is on industry’s side.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">With a new era of environmental deregulation under way, issues ranging from the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan to offshore drilling in the Arctic are landing in the courts for final say. The stakes are enormous for the industry, which is simultaneously confronting a wave of lawsuits that seek billions of dollars in damages for climate-change impacts. Among the defendants are<b>&nbsp;API members such as ExxonMobil.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Unlike government and the public, industry can afford to wait. “In many of these matters, litigation goes on decades and decades,” said Michael Gerrard, director of Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. “Time is on industry’s side.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">American Petroleum Institute, et al.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Time has worked to API’s advantage</b>. The institute was founded in 1919 amid congressional demands to nationalize the oil industry during World War I, forcing competing companies to band together for survival. In the near-century since, API has helped thwart regulations by tying them up in court.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">An exterior shot of the Lenexa Federal Records Center, an annex of the National Archives and Records Administration.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Center for Land Use Interpretation (licensed CC NC-SA)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Archives at the Lenexa Federal Records Center are located 60 feet below ground in limestone caves.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">NARA</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Buried in limestone caves 60 feet below Lenexa, Kansas, is an esoteric slice of API history. Yellowing records at the National Archives annex there are all that remain of a 1940 lawsuit so expansive that three pages of the complaint simply list defendants — all 379 of them</b>.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">United States of America v.<b>&nbsp;American Petroleum Institute,&nbsp;</b>et al</span>. alleged widescale collusion and price-fixing by 22 major oil companies and their 300-plus affiliates, which controlled a total of $9 billion in assets (the equivalent of $160 billion today). The U.S. Department of Justice charged that the industry was unlawfully consolidating — with the institute’s help — and vowed to take the antitrust case all the way to the Supreme Court.&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The industry is dominated and controlled by the 22 defendant majors who transact more than 85 percent of the total business of the industry,” the Justice Department wrote in its complaint. “Where normal competition once flourished, the rapid development of the completely integrated defendants has substantially destroyed competition.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read more about Big Oil's unlikely alliance with the White House ]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>American Petroleum Institute, et al. never made it to trial.&nbsp;</b>The case was neutered early on by 11 oil executives working closely with the White House to ensure an Allied victory in World War II. The executives — nine of whom were affiliated with defendant companies — asked the attorney general to strike from the complaint a provision that would have forced companies to divest assets such as pipelines. This, the men warned, could hamper the war effort and “becloud relationships between the government and industry.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After languishing in the courts for years, the lawsuit was dismissed in 1951 by the Justice Department, which found it to be a logistical nightmare. Gone, too, was the government’s interest in dissolving API as a monopolistic tool of industry. This year, API wriggled out of public scrutiny once more. In yet another potentially landmark case, lawyers suing the U.S. government for inaction on climate change tried to compel the institute to turn over decades of internal records. API had joined the case to help defend the government but dropped out rather than reveal what it knew about global warming, and when.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“They're a highly sophisticated, integrated political operation,” said Bob Brulle,</b>&nbsp;an environmental sociologist at Drexel University. API’s effectiveness, Brulle said, lies in its partnerships with like-minded groups such as the American Chemistry Council, the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — amplifying its message “in a very directed, coordinated way.” In 2016, the institute absorbed its only real competitor, America’s Natural Gas Alliance.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">With ample resources at their disposal, groups such as API — which employs a full-time legal staff and can also tap into the legal teams of its member companies — can quickly blunt federal regulatory efforts or simply wait for the political winds to change.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On November 30, 1999, for example, representatives of more than 20 lobby groups met at the institute’s Washington, D.C., headquarters to muster opposition to an EPA plan to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Leading the meeting was<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">&nbsp;<b>API lobbyist Phil Cooney.</b>&nbsp;</span>In a memo, the institute offered to coordinate on the alliance’s behalf, pushing out the message to politicians and the news media. But by 2001, the political climate had changed. Cooney had become head of environmental policy for George W. Bush’s White House, where he altered federal reports to sow doubt on climate change. Under Bush, the EPA retreated from its earlier position, claiming it didn’t have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases after all. Cooney could not be located for comment.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The issue came to a head in 2003 when 12 states sued the EPA to force its hand. Coming to the agency’s defense was the CO2 Litigation Group, a newly formed coalition of 14 trade associations — including API.&nbsp; The coalition represented a spectrum of fossil-fuel companies, which argued that the EPA had “oversimplified” and overstated the certainty of climate change’s effects.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The case, Massachusetts v. EPA</b>, was decided in the states’ favor by the Supreme Court in 2007. But the matter continued to be tied up in the courts and the EPA bureaucracy, and it wasn’t until 2011 that the agency finally began regulating greenhouse gases. This gave rise to Obama’s 2015 Clean Power Plan, which targeted carbon dioxide emissions and became mired in litigation before the Trump administration marked it for extinction.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">‘Irreparably harmed’</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The back-and-forth of politics can be dispiriting. For that reason, James Hansen has staked his family's future — and the planet’s — on the courts. His granddaughter, Sophie Kivlehan, is one of 21 child and teenage plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States, a 2015 lawsuit that faults the government for failing to address climate change over half a century.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dr. James Hansen, Columbia University</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">YouTube</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sophie Kivlehan, granddaughter of James Hansen</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">YouTube</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“What we want is a plan — just for the government to have a plan,” said Hansen, a former NASA scientist who now directs the Earth Institute at Columbia University and is acting as a scientific expert in the case. Last year, industry groups including API became parties to the case.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It was Hansen’s congressional testimony as director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in the sweltering summer of 1988 that elevated global warming from simmering concern to boiling reality. With “99-percent” certainty, Hansen explained that the trend was a side effect of fossil-fuel combustion that would worsen without swift action. Months later, a group that would come to include 170 scientists from 25 countries united to confront what it called “the greatest global environmental challenge facing mankind.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When Hansen returned to Capitol Hill in 1989, he found his testimony heavily edited by the White House Office of Management and Budget under President George H.W. Bush. The office softened his conclusions, tacked on a paragraph qualifying his findings and otherwise stirred uncertainty about man-made causes of climate change.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While many have focused on what, and when, companies such as ExxonMobil knew about climate change<b>, Julia Olson — a lawyer with Our Children’s Trust,</b>&nbsp;a legal aid group representing the Juliana plaintiffs — is making a case for government complicity.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After years of litigating environmental cases, Olson realized she was dealing with symptoms of a disease,&nbsp; not the disease itself. “We were just playing a game of Whac-a-mole. One new part of our fossil fuel energy system would pop up, and we’d challenge it, and then it’d pop up somewhere else.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">She turned her attention to the government, which “chooses the winners and losers” and has long abetted fossil fuels, she said, allowing the industry to drill, mine and build. “Everyone wants Exxon to be the enemy,” Olson said, but, “every administration has made that decision to perpetuate fossil fuels.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After digging through presidential archives, her researchers found what they believe is the earliest White House reference to climate change: a 1961 letter from Sen. Clinton Anderson of New Mexico to President John F. Kennedy, recounting a meeting a day earlier at which they discussed a Fortune article warning of sea-level rise from a warming climate.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lyndon B. Johnson was the first president to publicly acknowledge such warming. In a speech in January 1965, he described how “a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels” was permanently altering the planet. By year’s end, his science advisory board had delivered a detailed report on the “invisible pollutant” capable of melting ice caps and raising sea levels.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Despite these early warnings, little has been done, Olson said. Since Hansen’s 1988 testimony, there have been more excessively hot years than at any other time on record. Two international accords tackling climate change have been brokered, with the United States conspicuously absent on both.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Though not named in Juliana,&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">API , the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers quickly intervened in the lawsuit,</span>&nbsp;</b>asserting their right to protect their members’ economic interests. The move awkwardly put the fossil-fuel groups on the same side as the Obama administration.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Their involvement in Juliana was short-lived. In late February, plaintiffs filed a detailed 21-page discovery request for API alone, seeking decades of internal communications, policies and reports related to climate change. By late June, all three trade groups had exited a case they had voluntarily joined. A judge allowed them to drop out after they were unable to agree on the causes and effects of greenhouse gases. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., suspects the groups “fled to avoid having to make the disclosures.” A vocal supporter of the Juliana action, Whitehouse believes the courts will hold industry accountable. “You have a judge and you have sanctions for not telling the truth, and that is a combination that for decades the fossil fuel industry has sought to avoid like Kryptonite."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Other climate-related lawsuits have followed Juliana, which is set for trial in 2018. Last summer, three California coastal communities filed suit against 37 fossil-fuel companies, blaming their greenhouse-gas emissions for rising sea levels. In September, San Francisco and Oakland became the first major U.S. cities to sue oil companies to cover past and future flood damage. In November, a Pennsylvania lawsuit alleged that the Trump administration is using “junk science” to roll back climate policies. A lawsuit pitting Portuguese schoolchildren against 47 European nations for failing to act on climate is in the works.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">George Mason University’s Law & Economics Center is located in this Arlington, Va., building.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ron Cogswell (licensed CC BY)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">‘Unwarranted and exaggerated’</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When<b>&nbsp;Gregory Conko&nbsp;</b>began organizing the October judges’ symposium at George Mason University, he wanted to ensure that participants left knowing science’s limitations. “Even good science cannot always answer the questions regulatory agencies ask,” he wrote to Louis “Tony” Cox, the risk analyst,</span>&nbsp;in a May email obtained by the Center for Public Integrity through a records request. “Even the best science is not capable of yielding normative judgments about whether something is necessarily good or bad, safe or dangerous, etc."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Conko headed the Competitive Enterprise Institute — a libertarian think tank known for fostering climate-change denial — before joining Mason’s Law & Economics Center last winter. Before Conko settled on Cox to lead the seminar, Nancy Beck, a former policy director for the American Chemistry Council who is now the EPA’s top official on toxic chemicals, was a candidate, emails show<b>. So was Michael Gough, a toxicologist&nbsp;</b>with ties to the tobacco industry and oil-backed climate-change denial groups. Conko declined requests for an interview.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Even good science cannot always answer the questions regulatory agencies ask.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Like&nbsp;<b>Beck</b>&nbsp;and Gough, Cox has championed narratives amenable to industry’s bottom line but not supported by mainstream science. In 2015, Cox said that “no detectable public health benefits” would result from a stricter EPA ozone limit. His testimony was cited in an op-ed by API President Jack Gerard, who ended the column with a warning: “Economic recovery is far from complete, and saddling the nation’s job creators with burdensome new restrictions threatens to deal another blow to the middle-class economy.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What Gerard didn’t mention was Cox’s history with the institute</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">which spans decades. At the time the column was published, Cox was receiving funding from both the institute and the <b>American Chemistry Council, </b>which also represents petrochemical companies.</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In an interview, Cox denied that industry funding influences his findings. He criticized EPA science as flawed, saying it assumes links that haven’t been proven.</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I see a tremendous lack of clarity when agencies say there’s reason to believe X causes Y,” Cox said. “The proposition that the science is settled — ‘We don’t need to look at this’ — it’s a bad proposition.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Cox holds a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science and a master’s degree in operations research, which focuses on decision-making — both from MIT.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Asked about his involvement in the George Mason symposium, Cox said that “judges in particular should have a healthy skepticism, especially about claims of causality.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Fellow risk analyst and friend Adam Finkel counts Cox among an elite few who have the credentials for risk analysis</b>, an amalgam of health sciences, economics, policy-making and statistics. But their views on what should or shouldn’t be regulated couldn’t be further apart.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A former director of health standards programs at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Finkel has spent his career trying to strengthen worker protections against toxic substances. “It’s disappointing to me that someone as smart as he is can make such a stupid mistake,” Finkel, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan, said of Cox. “I don’t ascribe evil intent to him; he’s just lost his way.”</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The weight of evidence, Finkel said, isn’t on Cox’s side. “He’s not just saying, ‘We should wait for the right answer.’ He’s saying, ‘We should be more protective of the economy than of human health.’”</span></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063720073">
</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063720073">https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063720073</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">wheeler on way out the door&nbsp;</span>12/20 ignores sci</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>with six weeks left in President Trump's term, EPA has cemented plans to bypass tighter soot standards, despite agency career staff conclusions and concerns about tens of thousands of additional deaths every year.</b></font></div><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has signed a final rule to keep the existing ambient air quality standards for soot in place at least another five years,&nbsp;</b>according to people familiar with the matter both inside and outside the agency, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified. A formal public announcement is scheduled for later this afternoon.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An EPA spokesman declined to comment in advance of that announcement.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The decision, which marks a victory for the fossil fuel industry but is certain to be challenged in court, comes as no surprise. In signing the draft rule this spring, Wheeler said he believed the existing limits sufficed to protect public health</span>&nbsp;(<em style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1062873703/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-weight: 700;">Greenwire</a></em>, April 14).</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">But his determination bypassed the findings of EPA air office employees who concluded in a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2020-01/documents/final_policy_assessment_for_the_review_of_the_pm_naaqs_01-2020.pdf" style="background: rgb(255, 204, 102); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: 700;">report</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;this year that the existing annual limit on soot exposure could be too weak to prevent "a substantial number" of premature deaths each year. An overview of 30 urban areas, for example, tied exposure to as many as</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;45,000 annual deaths from heart disease and other causes, with</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;minority communities at greater risk.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;Those findings didn't take into account more recent research suggesting that long-term exposure to soot may also heighten vulnerability to COVID-19</span>&nbsp;(<i style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1063013271/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-weight: 700;">Greenwire</a></i>, April 30).</font></p><div style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As E&E News has previously reported, critics are already angling to reverse the decision under the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden (<em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063719167/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; font-weight: 700;">Greenwire</a></em>, Nov. 23). In a letter late last month, for example,&nbsp;<b>Democratic attorneys general from 16 states urged EPA to reopen the review on the grounds that fresh evidence of soot's perils had surfaced.</b></font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Equally contentious was the process by which the Trump administration pursued the legally required review of standards for what is formally known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Under a fast-track timetable put in motion in mid-2018, the review is ending roughly two years ahead of its previous schedule</span>.</font></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">While Wheeler cited the recommendation of an agency advisory committee in opting to stick with the status quo, that</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;committee is chaired by a consultant [COX] who had previously done work for the&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">American Petroleum Institute</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;and was nominated for the position by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.&nbsp;</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In late 2018, in what he later described as a streamlining move, Wheeler fired an auxiliary panel of researchers who were providing additional expertise to the review.</span></font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In statements today, environmental and scientific advocacy groups denounced his decision to stick with the status quo.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"The Trump administration rigged the rule-making process to achieve exactly this result by cutting science and scientists out of the picture at every turn," said Gretchen Goldman, research director of the Union of Concerned Scientists'</b>&nbsp;Center for Science and Democracy, which last year reconvened the fired panel to conduct a competing unofficial review, which found the evidence warranted tighter standards.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"The worst part of all of this is that low income communities and communities of color will bear the brunt of Wheeler's heartless decision,</b>" said Al Armendariz, an Obama-era EPA official who is now a senior director at the Sierra Club. "We look forward to the new administration following the scientific evidence and setting the air quality standard that meets legal requirements to protect public health."</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Soot is known as PM2.5 because it is no bigger than 2.5 microns in diameter,</b>&nbsp;or one-thirtieth the width of a human hair; its formation is closely associated with the burning of coal and oil products. With an ability to penetrate deep into the lungs and even get into the bloodstream, the tiny particles are associated with an array of respiratory and cardiovascular problems, including a greater risk of premature death under some circumstances.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPA's current annual exposure threshold for PM2.5, set in 2012, is 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air; the daily limit, dating back to 2006, is 35 micrograms. In this year's report, EPA career staff concluded that the evidence justified an annual standard as low as 8 micrograms per cubic meter of air.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Under the Clean Air Act, particulate matter is among a half-dozen common pollutants for which EPA must set and periodically review ambient air quality standards at least every five years. While the agency rarely meets that timetable, the newly signed final rule is intended to keep the existing standards in place through 2025 at a minimum.</b></font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Friday, the White House&nbsp;<b>Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs completed a routine review of the final draft rule,</b>&nbsp;according to a government tracking&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reginfo.gov/public/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: 700;">website</a>. In sending the rule back to EPA, OIRA officials canceled several meetings that had previously been scheduled with the California Air Resources Board, Environment America and the Natural Resources Defense Council, representatives for the three organizations confirmed in email messages and via Twitter.</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.motherjones.com/environment<b>/2018/10</b>/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">reveal]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;spring, air pollution researchers from around the world gathered to discuss their latest findings. Among them were scientists who led landmark studies linking smog and soot to deadly health problems.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So it was shocking when one speaker essentially told everyone in the room that they were wrong.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In his half-hour presentation, Tony Cox, a risk analyst from Denver, claimed that researchers are overstating the dangers of air pollution.</b> He explained how his own statistical modeling of health data found no connection between dirty air and respiratory problems or heart attacks.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scientists and others at the Health Effects Institute annual conference were appalled. Some added to their speeches what they had thought was obvious: Yes, air pollution really is dangerous.</font></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_1" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-4" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox might have been just shrugged off as a provocateur, a denier of established science. But he leads the Trump administration’s panel of scientists that offers advice on how to protect the health of about 126 million Americans who live in smoggy and sooty places.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In that role, he’s in a prime position to spread his skepticism of the science of air pollution: The Environmental Protection Agency is poised&nbsp;<a href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_report.cfm?Lab=NCEA&dirEntryId=341593" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">this year</a>&nbsp;to review its health standards for fine particles known as PM2.5 and ozone, the main component of smog.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These decisions, scientists say, literally could mean life and death for people in cities across the United States.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The EPA’s seven-member Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, which has been completely remade under President Donald Trump, is responsible for reviewing the science and advising the EPA on what level of pollution is unhealthy. Cox was appointed a year ago, and earlier this month, all remaining holdovers from the Obama administration were replaced with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/acting-administrator-wheeler-announces-science-advisors-key-clean-air-act-committee" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">new appointees</a>, including two who also downplay the threats of breathing polluted air.</font></b></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Powerful industries—such as power companies, vehicle manufacturers and oil companies—oppose tighter health standards because they would force states to adopt costly rules that cut emissions.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, <b>Cox was nominated for the science board’s top position by the US Chamber of Commerce, </b>which has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uschamber.com/issue-brief/ozone-national-ambient-air-quality-standards" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">sued</a>&nbsp;the EPA multiple times in an effort to loosen air pollution standards. The nomination came from&nbsp;<b><a href="https://www.uschamber.com/dan-byers" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Dan Byers</a>&nbsp;of the chamber’s Global Energy Institute, </b>who leads “efforts to <b>promote and maintain coal</b>’s vital role in America’s energy system.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox has made his living challenging established science on behalf of industry. He has worked as a consultant for more than a dozen companies or industry groups that lobby against clean air or worker safety rules and are major sources of pollution, according to his&nbsp;<a href="https://cox-associates.com/risk-analysis/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">website</a>. <b>He consulted for the American Petroleum Institute, which represents oil and gas companies, and the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, which represents makers of diesel and gasoline engines. He also consulted for the mining industry and tobacco giant Philip Morris.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Industries hire Cox to sow doubt about the scientific evidence, to make the case that agencies don’t have any proof,” said Celeste Monforton, a worker safety advocate who worked at the Department of Labor in the 1990s. “Already, there’s some reticence around regulation. If you can introduce more doubt, it can be very effective.”</font></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_3" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-11" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an interview, Cox said there is no proof that cleaning air saves lives. He also has written that there’s no link between fine particle pollution and human health and that the health benefits from reducing ozone are “<a href="https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF03/20150616/103610/HHRG-114-IF03-Wstate-CoxL-20150616.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">exaggerated</a>.”</font></b></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Folks talk a good game and maybe fool themselves and others for a decade or so with feel-good projections and estimates, while all the time, the public gets zero actual measurable health benefits in terms of reduced death rates caused by the intervention,” Cox said.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Numerous scientific studies around the world have reported the same results for two decades: Fine particles and ozone raise the risk of people dying from&nbsp;<a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP3766" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">asthma</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28735838" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">heart attacks</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29283681" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">pneumonia</a>&nbsp;and other serious lung and heart ailments, and cleaning the air reduces deaths and hospitalizations.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox is “clearly outside the mainstream,” said Chris Zarba, who led the EPA staff overseeing the science boards for six years until he retired in February. “He is not someone I would have picked. You want some diversity (on the board), you want some outsiders, but only up to a point.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Air pollution experts also have raised concerns about the expertise of the rest of the panel, with only one member with a medical or health background. None is an epidemiologist, the primary discipline that investigates human health effects of pollution. Five of the seven are engineers or toxicologists.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">George Thurston, who served on a subcommittee of the clean air board under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, is worried that the changes under Trump will skew the panel’s nonpartisan science advisory work.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Special interests get ahold of it and misrepresent the results,” said Thurston, who directs a program studying human health effects of air pollution at New York University’s School of Medicine. “And all the time, you’re delaying the public health benefits of regulation. That’s the goal.”</font></p><h3 class="subheader" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.3; margin: 2rem 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No medical or health training</font></span></h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cox’s background as a statistician—with degrees in risk analysis, mathematical economics and operations research—makes him an unconventional fit compared with the doctors and scientists who traditionally have led the air pollution panel.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> His focus is risk analysis, a mathematical field designed to bring order to uncertain situations in which data is scarce or messy. He has no medical or health training.</span></font></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_5" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-10" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Cox is the editor-in-chief of&nbsp;</b><a href="http://www.sra.org/sra-journal" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px"><b>Risk Analysis: An International Journa</b>l</a>&nbsp;and was inducted into the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nae.edu/cms/56125.aspx" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">National Academy of Engineering</a>&nbsp;for “applications of operations research and risk analysis to significant national problems.” He designed a toolkit for analyzing cause and effect that he described as a “totally dispassionate and honest mechanical” means of clearing away statistical noise.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox relies on a strategy that’s commonly applied by major corporations seeking to limit regulation: He plays on the uncertainty inherent in all scientific analyses.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Take particulate matter, tiny pieces of soot a fraction of the diameter of a human hair, which come from burning fuel in smokestacks and vehicles. The particles can lodge in the lungs and enter the bloodstream, inflaming lung diseases such as asthma and raising the risk of a heart attack.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Long-term studies of multiple cities by Harvard University, the University of Southern California and other schools have linked reduced particulate levels to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa1414123" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">improved lung development</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5679287/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">respiratory health</a>&nbsp;in children and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8179653" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">more deaths</a>&nbsp;from heart attacks and lung diseases on days when fine particles increase.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But when Cox applies his statistical model to the same data, he reaches a different conclusion.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> That’s because he is searching for factors other than pollution that may drive deaths. For instance, when he analyzed data on 100 cities, he reported “no evidence that reductions in PM2.5 concentrations cause reductions in mortality rates.” Instead, his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23707535" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">analysis</a>&nbsp;concluded that it was temperature driving deaths. (Colder air can trap particles close to the ground, so the two factors often come together.) In other analyses, Cox pointed to income as a bigger factor than pollution.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most of the evidence of health benefits “when looked at carefully turns out to consist of a mix of bad statistics, wishful thinking and irresponsible claims,” Cox said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Epidemiologists say there’s a role for causal analysis like Cox’s. But they say it can’t replace the large studies that show what happens to people’s health when real-world pollutant levels rise and fall, combined with controlled experiments exposing people and animals</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Cause and effect is extremely difficult to prove in public health; instead, scientists search for repeated associations between sickness and pollution levels.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For instance, when a Utah steel mill that was releasing soot into the air shut down for 13 months, the number of children admitted to hospitals for asthma attacks and bronchitis dropped, according to one&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00039896.1991.9937434" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">study</a>. Once the mill reopened and the emissions returned, admissions nearly doubled.</font></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_7" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-9" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The researchers couldn’t declare without a doubt that closing the mill improved children’s health. But C. Arden Pope, a Brigham Young University professor and the study’s author, said the evidence leaves no other conclusion. He said no one has found a “magical confounder” that could explain why twice as many children are hospitalized with asthma attacks when the steel mill operates.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“A lot of what (Cox) says is manufactured uncertainty,” said Gretchen Goldman, research director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “If there’s a science-based rule, opponents will try to emphasize the uncertainty in the science to obscure its benefits.”</font></p><h3 class="subheader" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.3; margin: 2rem 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Industry ties on science boards</font></span></h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The air pollution board isn’t the only one the Trump administration has overhauled. Cox’s appointment came after then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt booted scientists from all advisory panels if they had received EPA research grants. That means most academics no longer qualify, while people with ties to polluting industries swamp the panels.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">An&nbsp;<a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/epa-swaps-top-science-advisers-with-industry-allies/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">investigation</a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Reveal</em>&nbsp;from the Center for Investigative Reporting found that 16 of the Trump administration’s 18 replacements for the EPA’s larger, broader Science Advisory Board last year had industry ties.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <b>The board’s new chairman, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality toxicology director Michael Honeycutt, has&nbsp;</b></span><b><a href="http://energyindepth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Shaw-Lange-and-Honeycutt-EM-2015-Ozone-Health-Benefits.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">cast doubt</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;on the effectiveness of EPA clean air rules. Another member, Robert Phalen, once said modern air is&nbsp;“</span><a href="https://www.aaas.org/blog/member-spotlight/robert-phalen-tests-our-modern-air" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">a little too clean for optimum health</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.”</span></b></font></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_8" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-8" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox’s work for industry often has disputed science supporting regulations. In 2014, Cox spoke at a public hearing on behalf of the American Chemistry Council, which represents chemical companies, arguing against a proposed federal rule tightening limits on worker exposure to silica dust. He called the government’s assessment, which linked low levels to lung disease, “not ready for prime time.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His testimony prompted a fiery retort from a nationally known scientist: Robert Park of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health&nbsp;<a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=OSHA-2010-0034-3576" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">told the hearing audience</a>&nbsp;that it was “ludicrous” for Cox to question “100 years of research” showing silica’s health effects.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We aren’t stupid,” Park told him.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For diesel engine manufacturers, Cox criticized science that links diesel exhaust to lung cancer. Diesels are a major source of the fine particles that his panel will review.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A 2012&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3375489/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">study</a>&nbsp;by Cox, partially funded by Philip Morris, found that smoking 10 or fewer cigarettes per day didn’t raise the risk of heart disease. </b>According to his website, he also consulted for the tobacco company multiple times between 2004 and 2009, including questioning whether smoking causes lung cancer and other lung diseases.</font></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_9" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-7" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The National Mining Association retained him in 2011 to&nbsp;<a href="https://arlweb.msha.gov/regs/comments/2010-25249/AB64-COMM-74-12.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">testify</a>&nbsp;against a rule that would limit miners’ exposure to coal dust to combat <b>black lung</b> disease. In addition, the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association funded a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3109/10408444.2013.777689" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">2013 paper</a>&nbsp;he wrote questioning the links between cancers and proximity to California rock mines.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Industry representatives often have served on EPA panels. George Wolff, a scientist for General Motors, led the clean air panel for three years in the 1990s. But under previous administrations, they were in the minority, outweighed by voices from academia.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler earlier this month&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/10/14/epa-scraps-pair-air-pollution-science-panels/?utm_term=.3db2c4ad2f44" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">disbanded</a>&nbsp;a large subcommittee of scientists that reviewed health effects of particulates and scrapped plans to create one for ozone</b>. That means the EPA will rely on the seven panelists rather than two dozen or more specialized experts when it decides whether to loosen or tighten air standards.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You can’t say you are serious about the views of the scientific community and then limit the expertise at the table,” said John Bachmann, a former EPA director for science policy on air quality under the George W. Bush administration. “It is a travesty.”</font></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_10" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-6" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One new air pollution board member is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Timothy_Lewis4" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Timothy Lewis</a>, an aquatic ecology engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers whose work focuses on controlling invasive species in waterways. He has no apparent expertise in human effects of air pollution.</font></b></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another new member is Sabine Lange, a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality toxicologist who has publicly questioned the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.energyindepth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Shaw-Lange-and-Honeycutt-EM-2015-Ozone-Health-Benefits.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">impact of ozone pollution</a>&nbsp;on health and collaborated with Honeycutt on a<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30049975" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">&nbsp;study</a>&nbsp;criticizing the EPA’s benefits analysis for the standard.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joining them is Steven Packham, a Utah Division of Air Quality toxicologist. Even though Salt Lake City has some of the nation’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lung.org/our-initiatives/healthy-air/sota/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">worst particulate pollution</a>, Packham&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hjnews.com/allaccess/air-quality-impacts-health-professor-says/article_406e0713-fb38-554c-a2f5-4efaf3c86092.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">said in 2016</a>, “We don’t have enough data to say PM2.5 is causing the health effects that we’re attributing to it.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The sole medical voice on the panel is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/people/20996116-mark-w-frampton" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Dr. Mark Frampton</a>, a pulmonologist with the University of Rochester Medical Center who has studied the health effects of air pollutants, including leading the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.healtheffects.org/publication/multicenter-ozone-study-older-subjects-moses-part-1-effects-exposure-low-concentrations" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">largest systematic study</a>&nbsp;exposing patients to ozone. In a 2011&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3172884/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">editorial</a>&nbsp;in a medical journal, Frampton said that as health effects emerge at lower levels of ozone, the economic costs could become untenable, so “we need to consider new regulatory approaches in achieving the cleanest air possible and minimizing harm.”</font></span></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_11" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-5" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><h3 class="subheader" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.3; margin: 2rem 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stakes are high in many cities</font></span></h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s a lot at stake for the public: More than&nbsp;<a href="https://www3.epa.gov/airquality/greenbook/jnsum.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">124 million people</a>&nbsp;in 201 US counties live in places where the air is considered unhealthy for ozone, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www3.epa.gov/airquality/greenbook/knsum.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">more than 23 million</a>&nbsp;people breathe air with unhealthful levels of fine particles. Included are the Los Angeles region, Houston, New York, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Sacramento, California. The elderly, children and people with cardiovascular or lung diseases are most at risk.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The clean air panel is the scientific filter for EPA policymakers who set the health standards. First, the panelists review a massive collection of studies assembled by EPA staff to say where the science is strongest and where uncertainty exists. That’s followed by an assessment of what the potential health effects are at various pollution levels.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finally, the panel produces a recommendation for a safe air quality level. The federal Clean Air Act mandates that the standards be bounded strictly by science, not costs. The EPA does not have to adopt the recommendation, but a definitive scientific review from the panel is hard for the agency to ignore.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Cox is someone who can go out and put in all kinds of weasel words,” said Bachmann, the former EPA official. “He can weaken all the evidence we have.”</font></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_12" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-3" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox said he isn’t trying to stop the EPA from reducing pollution, but wants to offer “a more accurate and nuanced understanding of what we can control.” He said he hopes he can “help clarify and communicate clearly and precisely about what is known and what remains uncertain.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the new makeup of the science panel comes with other changes to the EPA’s review process for clean air standards. Pruitt in May&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-05/documents/image2018-05-09-173219.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">outlined</a>&nbsp;a streamlined review—removing some opportunities to challenge faulty assumptions—and asked the science panel for the first time to advise the EPA on adverse “social, economic or energy effects” of attaining standards.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zarba, the former EPA official, worries that those changes could give air pollution skeptics such as Cox more power to bake in their conclusions from the start.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If you cherry-pick the science a certain way,” Zarba said, “you can get whatever answer you want.”</font></p></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>covid // partic holo</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">icn 820</font></div><div style=""><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;">...As Covid-19 cases and fatalities were escalating in the United States, the Trump administration took several actions on pollution that—in the researchers' view—lent urgency to their work. On March 26, EPA Administrator Wheeler took the extraordinary step of announcing a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27032020/coronavirus-covid-19-EPA-API-environmental-enforcement" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">suspension of environmental law enforcement</a>&nbsp;because of Covid-19—relief that had been sought by the oil and gas industry. Wheeler insisted that companies were only being relieved of reporting requirements, not their pollution limits.<b>&nbsp;But in fact, without self-reporting by the companies EPA would not know whether they were violating pollution limits or not.</b></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;">On March 30, the EPA finalized a rollback in vehicle fuel economy standards, a step the administration's own&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/final_safe_fria_web_version_200701.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">regulatory analysis concluded</a>&nbsp;would increase&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7002365-Final-FIA-for-SAFE-Page-1985.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">adverse health impacts</a>&nbsp;due to PM 2.5. Meanwhile, any day Wheeler was expected to open for public comment his decision not to strengthen the national air quality standard for PM 2.5.&nbsp;</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"At the time of a pandemic that attacks the lungs, it's really inconceivable not to clean the air," Dominici said. "I wanted to put this study out there as soon as possible—considering all of the limitations, and being very open about discussing the limitations—to raise the urgency and the importance of this issue.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We are in the middle of a pandemic, which honestly, we don't know how to fight, even without what I think are really unwise decisions by the Trump administration," she said.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dominici checked with some of the major scientific journals, and was assured that they would still be eligible to submit their manuscript for peer review and publication if it was posted as a preprint first.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In New York, mobile morgues were set up outside strained hospitals. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that it would be the "hardest and the saddest" week for "most Americans' lives."</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Shortly after 8 a.m. on April 7, New York City's&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">deadliest day</a>&nbsp;in the pandemic, with 597 coronavirus fatalities, the Harvard team's study was posted on MedRxiv. The paper didn't mention the Trump administration by name, but took its Covid enforcement policy to task.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;">"Despite the inherent limitations of the ecological study design, our results&nbsp;</span>underscore the importance of continuing to enforce existing air pollution regulations to protect human health both during and after the COVID-19 crisis," the authors wrote.</b></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;">By noon,&nbsp;</span><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The New York Times&nbsp;</em>posted&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/climate/air-pollution-coronavirus-covid.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">a story</a>&nbsp;about the new study, noting it could have "far-reaching implications" in regard to the Trump administration's environmental rollbacks.</font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Controversy, and a Revision of Findings</font></h3><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reaction to the Harvard study was swift, and divided.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Joe Biden, then close to securing the Democratic presidential nomination (Bernie Sanders would drop out of the race the next day), shared the&nbsp;</span><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Times</em>&nbsp;story on Twitter.</b>&nbsp;"We're starting to see evidence that long-term exposure to air pollution—which disproportionately affects communities of color & low-income communities—is linked to COVID-19 death rates," he&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1247699431442370561?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">posted.</a>&nbsp;"It's past time we treat pollution like the threat to our health it is."</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b>Fifteen environmental groups cited the Harvard research in the lawsuit they filed the following week against the Trump administration over its pandemic-related rollback of environmental enforcement</b>. "EPA's policy is especially dangerous in light of recent research showing that increased air pollution causes a statistically significant increase in the COVID-19 death rate," said the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/complaint-epa-non-enforcement-20200416.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">complaint</a>&nbsp;led by the Natural Resources Defense Council.&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Meanwhile, former coal industry executiv<b>e Steve Milloy,</b>&nbsp;who served on Trump's EPA transition team and is a vocal supporter of the president's environmental rollbacks, blasted the study as "totally absurd" on his web site,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://junkscience.com/2020/04/harvard-howler-study-claims-pm2-5-increases-risk-of-death-from-covid19/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">junkscience.com</a>. He repeated his oft-stated position, which conflicted with the consensus science and even the stance of Trump's EPA, that PM 2.5's link to premature death was not "biologically plausible."&nbsp;</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For his part, EPA Administrator Wheeler dismissed the Harvard results as preliminary, then lit into the researchers.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"We look forward to reviewing the Harvard study once it's completed and peer reviewed, but at this point, it's not," he said on April 14, the day he announced his long-anticipated decision not to strengthen the air quality standard for PM 2.5.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"I have to say, at least in the press, that the scientists seem to have a bias," Wheeler added.</b>&nbsp;"They are talking about our enforcement discretion memo, and either they didn't read it or they didn't understand it." Wheeler repeated that there would be no pollution increase due to the enforcement memo, an assertion impossible to document at that point.&nbsp;</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dominici, in an interview, defended the rigor of the team's scientific results, given the limitations of the available data. But she bristled at the notion that concern over the health impacts of air pollution was an improper bias.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I've worked with EPA and I've been funded by EPA," said Dominici. "My own bias is that I'm biased in favor of protecting the public. And I'm biased in favor of protecting the most vulnerable. So yes, you know, this is a bias I'm really proud to have."</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But the Harvard researchers also faced criticism from within the scientific community.</b></font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Two scientists who have published extensively on the associations between air pollution and adverse health effects said the Harvard research had so many shortcomings they were not convinced of its results. In an essay on April 21 for&nbsp;</span><a href="https://theconversation.com/air-pollution-covid-19-and-death-the-perils-of-bypassing-peer-review-136376" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">The Conversation,</a>&nbsp;Paul Villeneuve, an epidemiologist at Carleton University, and Mark Goldberg, a professor of medicine at McGill University, noted why county-level data was inadequate for drawing conclusions</span>. They brought up a number of potentially problematic factors that the Harvard study had not taken into account, including varying physical distancing policies and the possible underreporting of deaths. Interactions among the factors were so complex, they argued, it was impossible to account for them without&nbsp; information about individuals.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Proper peer review must not be bypassed—and the onus for respecting its role falls not just on journalists but also on scientists to communicate the correct information accurately," Villeneuve and Goldberg wrote.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The following week, on April 27, the Harvard team updated and revised their results. They added three more weeks worth of coronavirus fatalities and nearly doubled the number of potentially confounding variables in the analysis</b>—including, for example, the stage of the pandemic and the state stay-at-home orders. The result was a slightly weaker but still significant association between PM 2.5 and Covid-19 deaths:<b>&nbsp;an 8 percent—instead of 15 percent—greater risk of death for every 1 microgram per cubic meter increase in PM 2.5.</b></font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"As soon as you get the preprint out, you can receive feedback from scientists all around the world," said Wu. "As a result we have much stronger models in the second version of the paper."</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>The American Petroleum Institute</b>,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;however, argued that the revision was evidence of the study's underlying weakness. The update was "an action that suggests some fragility in the overall study results, and sets a precedent that the findings will likely continue to change due to the preliminary nature of the work,"&nbsp;<b>API said, in&nbsp;</b></span></span><b><a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf//BAD8E161CD3160BE852585580047CE29/$File/API+Comments+EPA's+Charge+Questions+to+SAB+COVID-19+April+27+2020.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102); box-sizing: inherit;">an analysis&nbsp;</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">of the Harvard study that the industry trade group submitted to EPA's science advisory committee.&nbsp;</span></b></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Cox,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> chair of the EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee,</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;had harsher words, in an&nbsp;</span></span><a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/bogus-analysis-trump-appointed-epa-advisers-criticize-study-linking-air-pollution-and-coronavirus-death" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">interview&nbsp;</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">with&nbsp;</span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102); box-sizing: inherit;">The Washington&nbsp;<b>Examiner</b></em><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">.</b></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"This whole thing is a bogus piece of analysis," he said. "It's technically unsound. It has sensational policy implications, none of which are trustworthy."</b></font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Views on the Harvard study—and on the connection between air pollution and Covid-19—were hardening along political fault lines.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b>"In his inaugural address, Trump spoke of 'American carnage.' He is delivering just that," said former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NRDC president Gina McCarthy,</b>&nbsp;who served as EPA administrator under Obama, in&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-04/how-trump-s-epa-is-making-covid-19-more-deadly" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">an editorial</a>&nbsp;on May 4. Citing the Harvard study, they blasted Trump for "his push to increase air pollution in the midst of an unprecedented respiratory pandemic—jeopardizing people's ability to survive it."</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;">The reliably conservative editorial page of&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Wall Street Journal&nbsp;</em>shot back the same day,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fossil-fuel-virus-nexus-not-11588630987" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">lamenting&nbsp;</a>that "opponents of fossil fuels are flogging a sloppy study that ties pollutants to coronavirus deaths.</b></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 138.594px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It may be that long-term exposure to PM 2.5 modestly raises the coronavirus death risk, but more rigorous studies are needed to prove this, and shutting down fossil-fuel production now won't save lives," the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Wall Street Journal</em>&nbsp;said. "It will deny livelihoods to hundreds of thousands of people."</font></span></p><h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9f940d3f-7fff-f95c-1bb8-82b2160c373d" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'A Bit of a Wild West Out There' ...</font></span></h3></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><div class="enhancement" data-align-center="" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; width: 680px; clear: both; margin: 30px 0px;"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref to icn covid</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/bogus-analysis-trump-appointed-epa-advisers-criticize-study-linking-air-pollution-and-coronavirus-death" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/bogus-analysis-trump-appointed-epa-advisers-criticize-study-linking-air-pollution-and-coronavirus-death</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bogus analysis': Trump-appointed EPA advisers criticize study linking air pollution and coronavirus deaths</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by&nbsp;<b>Abby Smith, Energy and Environment Reporter</b>&nbsp;|&nbsp; &nbsp;| April 27, 2020&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump administration appointees to key panels that advise the Environmental Protection Agency on science are criticizing a study that concludes areas with higher levels of air pollution will experience higher death rates from the coronavirus.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The study, from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has led to increased public pressure on the EPA in recent weeks, threatening the agency's deregulatory agenda on air pollution rules.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The advisers to the Trump administration, including the chair of the committee advising the agency on air pollution, say they are skeptical of the Harvard study’s methodology and conclusions. Those same appointees have previously raised questions about the strength of connections between fine particle pollution and health effects.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Harvard study hasn’t been peer reviewed yet, but it has been submitted to the New England Journal of Medicine for review.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“To me, this whole thing is a bogus piece of analysis,” said Tony Cox, who chairs the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. "It was rushed out without being properly vetted. It’s technically unsound. It has sensational policy implications, none of which are trustworthy."</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“I would have zero confidence in the published results of this study because its interpretation, design, and analysis are fundamentally flawed,” Cox, a risk analyst and president of Cox Associates, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Francesca Dominici, a senior author on the study, said the criticisms are inaccurate and invalid, and pointed to multiple other preliminary studies from researchers around the globe connecting long-term exposure to air pollution and increased risks from the virus.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The criticism comes as the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;EPA has convened a “rapid review” science advisory panel</span>&nbsp;to inform the agency as it improves its ability to address the environmental and human health effects of COVID-19. The panel first meets Thursday.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the research questions they will consider deals directly with whether exposure to air pollution increases susceptibility to respiratory viruses or exacerbates existing COVID-19 infections.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Harvard study concludes that just a small increase in long-term exposure to fine particulate matter, emitted primarily from fossil fuel combustion, leads to an 8% increase in the COVID-19 death rate. Thus, areas with higher levels of historical pollution are likely to experience higher death rates from the pandemic, according to the research.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Fine particulate matter has been linked to health effects such as nonfatal heart attacks, aggravated asthma, increased respiratory problems, and premature death in people with heart or lung disease, according to the EPA.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is “definitely enough there to pose a red flag,” said Dominici, who co-directs Harvard’s Data Science Initiative. Several other preliminary studies in recent weeks have also linked higher levels of particle pollution with higher death rates in China and in Italy.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We have a virus that is affecting our lungs, and I think it’s pretty undeniable that that’s happening,” Dominici told the Washington Examiner in an interview. Not prioritizing addressing air pollution “seems to me a very unwise decision."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Harvard study has already made waves in policy discussions. It’s been cited by Democratic lawmakers in letters calling on the EPA to reverse policy decisions, by environmentalists in a lawsuit challenging the agency’s memo on enforcement flexibility during the virus, and by presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in an updated fact sheet on his climate plan.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The research has also received heightened attention as the Trump EPA has continued its deregulatory agenda amid the pandemic</b>. Just in the last few weeks, the EPA relaxed Obama-era fuel economy standards, reversed the legal underpinning of mercury limits for power plants, and proposed to maintain current levels for national limits on fine particle pollution, despite recommendations from the agency’s career staff to strengthen them.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump administration allies say the study shouldn’t be used in policy making decisions given its preliminary nature.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The study does not appear to be ready for prime time and, if misused by policymakers, could needlessly divert critical health care and regulatory resources from areas that need them most,” a former EPA official told the Washington Examiner.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Stanley Young, a member of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board appointed by Trump officials, raised concerns the report’s language suggests a causal link between fine particulate matter pollution and COVID-19 deaths. The study, though, only concludes an association, he said.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is the proverbial butterfly in China causing a tornado in Alabama, and generally the world doesn’t work that way,”&nbsp;<b>Young, a statistician and CEO of CGStat,&nbsp;</b>said in an interview. “The paper is written in a way that strongly implies cause and effect,” he said, adding the authors “could have been a lot more circumspect than that.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cox suggested the Harvard study doesn’t control for the “urban-rural continuum,” which takes into account local-level population density as opposed to county averages.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Everything in the Harvard paper to me appears to be completely consistent with the hypothesis that crowding matters, but there’s nothing to suggest, other than wishful thinking perhaps, that [fine particulate matter] has any effect at all,” Cox said.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Dominici, however, said Cox’s claim isn’t true.&nbsp;</b>The researchers adjusted for population density and conducted separate analyses for urban counties and rural counties, she said. Those separate analyses had “very similar” results in terms of how fine particulate matter pollution affected the COVID-19 death rate, she added.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The researchers also accounted for more than 20 other confounding variables, such as age, stage of the epidemic, date of first confirmed case, and behavioral conditions like obesity and smoking, Dominici said.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Young noted the coronavirus outbreak is an “incredibly fluid” situation.</b>&nbsp;Scientists are learning more about how many people the virus has infected as testing becomes available. Tests might show the virus isn’t as deadly as previously thought, which would affect the data in the Harvard study, he said.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dominici, though, said a change in the death rate from COVID-19 wouldn’t affect the conclusions of their study. That's because the researchers use whatever the death rate is as a baseline to examine whether long-term fine particulate matter exposure had an effect on it, she said.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Overall, Cox and Young both suggested the Harvard study doesn’t make a direct enough link between higher levels of fine particulate matter and deaths from the coronavirus to influence policy decisions.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Now of all times is the time to really pay attention and be very responsible in distinguishing between associations that are quite trivial to produce and don’t necessarily have implications for sound policy, and real valid scientific information empirically backed by data showing how changing exposure changes health consequences,” Cox said.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dominici, though, said it’s always possible to find a hole in research because no data will ever be perfect. “It’s much harder to provide rigorous science at the time of a pandemic than criticize the science,” she said.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><div style=""><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><a href="https://desmog.co.uk/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://desmog.co.uk/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The head of a federal committee tasked with advising the&nbsp;Environmental Protection Agency (<span class="caps">EPA</span>) on air quality science&nbsp;recently disparaged a new Harvard study examining the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/climate/air-pollution-coronavirus-covid.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">link between air pollution and coronavirus fatalities</a>&nbsp;across the country</b>. The&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;adviser’s critical remarks appear consistent with his track record of disregarding robust science on air pollution and health risks in his consulting work for industry clients such as tobacco and fossil fuel&nbsp;interests.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Dr. Louis Anthony (Tony) Cox Jr., who is chair of&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>’s&nbsp;<a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabpeople.nsf/WebCommittees/CASAC" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee</a>, criticized a&nbsp;<a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/covid-pm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">preliminary study</a>&nbsp;from the&nbsp;<b>Harvard&nbsp;</b><span class="caps">T.H.</span>&nbsp;Chan School of Public Health in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/bogus-analysis-trump-appointed-epa-advisers-criticize-study-linking-air-pollution-and-coronavirus-death" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">comments made to the Washington Examiner</a></span>.&nbsp;<b>Cox — who previously produced his own&nbsp;study&nbsp;on air pollution and health risks that was funded and edited by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/american-petroleum-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">American Petroleum Institute</a>&nbsp;— questioned the validity of the Harvard study, which was released publicly in early April but has yet to undergo formal peer&nbsp;review.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The study, which&nbsp;links&nbsp;the type of fine particulate air pollution produced by&nbsp;cars and power plants&nbsp;to higher&nbsp;<span class="caps">COVID</span>-19 mortality rates, has been submitted for review and publication to the New England Journal of&nbsp;Medicine.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>It was rushed out without being properly vetted,” Cox&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/bogus-analysis-trump-appointed-epa-advisers-criticize-study-linking-air-pollution-and-coronavirus-death" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">said</a>. He called the study a “bogus piece of analysis” and “technically unsound.” According to Cox, the study is “fundamentally flawed” and “has sensational policy implications, none of which are&nbsp;trustworthy.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That study found that even small increases in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/particulate-matter-pm-basics" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">fine particulate matter (<span class="caps">PM2</span>.5)</a>&nbsp;exposure is associated with a statistically significant increase in the&nbsp;<span class="caps">COVID</span>-19 death rate. It is the first study to examine the link between long-term particulate matter exposure and coronavirus risks in the U.S., and the results are consistent with other peer-reviewed&nbsp;studies finding a correlation between&nbsp;<span class="caps">COVID</span>&nbsp;fatalities and air pollution in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/20/air-pollution-may-be-key-contributor-to-covid-19-deaths-study" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Europe</a>&nbsp;and,&nbsp;<a href="https://law.tulane.edu/sites/law.tulane.edu/files/Files/Terrell%20-%20COVID-19%20-%20PM%202.5%20Louisiana%202020-5-14%20WEB%20VERSION.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">most recently</a>, a preliminary&nbsp;analysis in Louisiana's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/louisiana-cancer-alley-communities-gulf-petrochemical-pollution" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Cancer Alley</a>. .</span>..[twt]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Harvard study has already garnered attention in Democratic policy circles.</b>&nbsp;A trio of Democratic Representatives&nbsp;<a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/sites/democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/files/documents/EPA.2020.4.21.%20Letter%20re%20Enforcement.OI0.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">cited it in a letter</a>&nbsp;expressing concerns over an&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;policy to relax environmental compliance obligations during the pandemic. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s office also cited it in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-healey-brief-environmental-pollution-contributes-to-disparate-impact-of-covid-19-pandemic" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">recent brief on environmental injustice and coronavirus</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democractic presidential candidate Joe Biden referenced the study in an&nbsp;<a href="https://joebiden.com/9-key-elements-of-joe-bidens-plan-for-a-clean-energy-revolution/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">online fact sheet</a>&nbsp;about his plan for a “clean energy revolution&nbsp;and environmental justice.” And in April the&nbsp;<a href="https://climatecrisis.house.gov/news/press-releases/harvard-researchers-brief-committee-members-covid-19-air-pollution-study" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">study authors discussed their findings</a>&nbsp;with members of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ccee.ncsu.edu/people/frey/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">H. Christopher Frey</a>, who has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/05/epa-decides-reject-latest-science-endanger-public-health-and-ignore-law-keeping-outdated-fine-particle-air-pollution" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">studied air pollution for over 30 years</a>&nbsp;and chaired&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee from 2012 to 2015, the Harvard study linking fine particulate matter exposure and worsened coronavirus outcomes “is no doubt the first of more to come</span>.” He said the Harvard researchers behind this study previously published epidemiological research showing the harmful effects of human exposure to fine particles, which is part of a robust science indicating deadly impacts of fine particulate (or particle)&nbsp;air pollution.&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>What is lost in the media coverage of the recent Harvard study is the strong causal link between human exposure to fine particles — before, during, and after the pandemic — and premature death,” Frey told DeSmog via email.&nbsp;“There is strong evidence, based on multiple peer-reviewed studies that span a wide range of locations, population demographics, housing characteristics, and so on, that exposure to fine particles at levels below the current air quality standards causes premature death and numerous disease&nbsp;outcomes.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But for Cox, who now leads the&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;advisory committee that Frey formerly chaired, the Harvard study’s findings are not convincing. “I would have zero confidence in the published results of this study because its interpretation, design, and analysis are fundamentally flawed,” he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/bogus-analysis-trump-appointed-epa-advisers-criticize-study-linking-air-pollution-and-coronavirus-death" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">told the Washington Examiner</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The statistical models developed by the Harvard team ignore crucial real-world interactions among risk factors, such as that&nbsp;<span class="caps">PM2</span>.5 cannot kill people where there are no people to kill,” Cox explained to DeSmog. He said the models also “omit crucial information and demographic variables” that could help explain reported associations. “For example, the model omits a variable, the 'rural-urban continuum,' that could help examine whether the reported association between&nbsp;<span class="caps">PM2</span>.5 and&nbsp;<span class="caps">COVID</span>-19 mortality risk is explained by the fact that both are higher in more crowded areas,” he&nbsp;said.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Francesca Dominici, Harvard biostatistician and senior author of the&nbsp;<span class="caps">COVID</span>&nbsp;study,&nbsp;defended Cox's critiques to the Washington Examiner, saying the team took into account potential confounding variables such as population density and separately analyzed urban and rural counties, with “very similar”&nbsp;results.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A group of 10&nbsp;agriculture and biofuels organizations called out Cox’s dismissive comments in a&nbsp;<a href="https://dakotaagenergy.com/letter-to-epa-regarding-covid-19-fine-particulates/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">May 8 letter</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;Administrator&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/andrew-wheeler" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Andrew Wheeler</a>, a former coal industry&nbsp;lobbyist.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>The Harvard School of Public Health has done work with&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;for years. It is shocking to see the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee be so dismissive of such a highly respected independent party,” a spokesman for the group said in a press release. The letter also points to Cox’s close association with the American Petroleum Institute, with the letter describing him as “the proverbial ‘fox in charge of the chicken&nbsp;coop.’”</font></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Longtime Industry&nbsp;Consultant</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Tony Cox is a statistician focusing on risk analysis and is president of Denver-based consulting firm Cox Associates. He has a&nbsp;<a href="http://cox-associates.com/index_htm_files/Coxbio.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">long history of consulting work</a>&nbsp;on behalf of corporate clients including in the tobacco, fossil fuel, and chemical industries. His industry ties include work in service of tobacco giant Phillip Morris and trade associations such as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Chemistry_Council" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">American Chemistry Council</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/national-mining-association" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">National Mining Association</a>, and the American Petroleum Institute (<span class="caps">API</span>).</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cox “has a history of attacking established research on the health risks of air pollution,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060109129" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">according to&nbsp;<span class="caps">E&E</span>&nbsp;News</a>, and his approach has been to emphasize scientific uncertainty and to question standard risk assessment. He has published studies, for example, that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1047279714005079" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">question</a>&nbsp;the relationship between levels of fine particulate matter (<span class="caps">PM2</span>.5) and mortality&nbsp;rates.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" /><div class="getty embed image" style="display: inline-block; width: 509px; max-width: 509px;"><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">one of those studies,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408444.2017.1311838" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">published in 2017 in the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology</a>, was not only sponsored, but also copy-edited, by&nbsp;<span class="caps">API</span>, a&nbsp;major oil and gas industry trade group.</span>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060109129" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">According to&nbsp;<span class="caps">E&E</span>&nbsp;News</a>, “Cox denied that&nbsp;<span class="caps">API</span>&nbsp;influenced his work and said the organization did not suggest any substantive changes.” Cox has done other research backed by&nbsp;<span class="caps">API</span>&nbsp;into air pollution and health risks, as well as the carcinogenic risks of benzene, a chemical in&nbsp;gasoline.</font></div></div><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>When asked whether his past industry funding sources could affect his research approach and stance on health risks of air pollution, Cox said the short answer is no. He defended his&nbsp;</b><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259011331930015X" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><b>adherence to what he calls “sound science</b>”</a>&nbsp;that demands a “more exacting” analysis and higher burden of proof compared to the traditional weight-of-evidence approach. “I believe that adhering to principles and methods of sound science, which leave no room for what funding sources believe or want, serves both science and the public interest far better than other approaches, and will continue to apply that approach in reaching conclusions,” Cox told&nbsp;DeSmog.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Studies show that industry-funded research may bias results and tends to produce more favorable results for its backers, in areas from&nbsp;<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2007-18356-004" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">psychology</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30617.x" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">medicine</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3876974/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">sugar and obesity</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox acknowledged that his approach has been “met with enormous backlash.” Frey said Cox's treatment of air pollution risk assessment is “disregarding the&nbsp;law.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Clean Air Act requires that&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;set air quality standards that protect public health with an adequate margin of safety.&nbsp;The standards should be set based not just on known, but also anticipated, adverse effects,” Frey explained. “With Dr. Cox leading the way, the current [Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee] has imposed a burden of proof for evidence of adverse effects far beyond that required by the Clean Air&nbsp;Act.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/us-chamber-commerce" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;"><span class="caps">U.S.</span>&nbsp;Chamber of Commerce</a>&nbsp;nominated Cox to chair&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee</b>, and former&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;head&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/scott-pruitt" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Scott Pruitt</a>&nbsp;ushered Cox into that role as part of a move that&nbsp;replaced many of the independent scientists on the agency’s Science Advisory Board with industry-affiliated&nbsp;experts.</font></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Purging Independent Scientists From&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;Advisory&nbsp;Board</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/09/01/multiple-industry-funded-nominations-epa-clean-air-advisory-committee" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">noted in 2017</a>, Cox was one of three nominees to the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee that raised red flags. The other two were S. Stanley Young, who is affiliated with climate science–denying&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Heartland Institute</a>, and Deane Waldman, who directs the Koch, Exxon, and tobacco industry-funded&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/texas-public-policy-foundation" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Texas Public Policy Foundation</a>’s Public Health Center. Cox became chair of the committee and both he and Young were put onto&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>’s Science Advisory Board.&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Senators Tom Carper (D-<span class="caps">DE</span>) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-<span class="caps">RI</span>) raised concerns about these two ultimate&nbsp;appointments in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/1/after-pruitt-bars-scientists-with-epa-grants-from-advisory-committees-carper-and-whitehouse-highlight-concerns-with-new-epa-appointees-conflicts-of-interest" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">January 9, 2018 letter</a>&nbsp;to then-<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;Administrator Pruitt. “</b>Specifically, it appears that public commenters warned that Drs. Louis Anthony (Tony) Cox, Jr. (a researcher for the petroleum industry) and S. Stanley Young (a researcher for the pharmaceutical and petroleum industry) may have financial conflicts of interest, may risk an appearance of impartiality, and may lack the scientific expertise necessary to serve on one or more Federal Advisory Committees,” they&nbsp;wrote.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The senators also expressed concern with Pruitt’s decision to bar scientists who received&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;grant funding from serving on&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;advisory committees and to instead appoint individuals with clear ties to regulated&nbsp;industries.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>We are concerned that some of the newly-appointed members of these nonpartisan scientific advisory committees and boards may have financial and ethical conflicts of interests,” they wrote. “In addition, some of these individuals may not possess the appropriate level of scientific expertise or credentials. This underscores our concern that your actions to replace many highly-qualified members of these committees — including the unprecedented action to remove any scientist who was a recipient of&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;grants from eligibility — has led to Federal Advisory Committees that are not balanced in viewpoints, and to the appointment of committee members who are either not qualified or not impartial. This approach undermines the process of providing sound, science-based advice that&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;can use as a basis for environmental regulations that are aimed at protecting human health and the environment.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A federal court&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2020/200415" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">recently ruled</a>&nbsp;that the&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;cannot prohibit its grant recipients from serving on its advisory&nbsp;panels.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="caps">EPA</span>’s Science Advisory Board generally does have some industry-affiliated scientists — they made up 40 percent of the board under President Obama — but under Trump they have come to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/epa-swaps-top-science-advisers-with-industry-allies/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">dominate</a>&nbsp;the agency’s science board, comprising 68 percent of the&nbsp;members.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Reveal News&nbsp;<a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/epa-swaps-top-science-advisers-with-industry-allies/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">explained</a>&nbsp;in 2017, “Pruitt transformed the board from a panel of the nation’s top environmental experts to one dominated by industry-funded scientists and state government officials who have fought federal&nbsp;regulations.”</font></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'Sidelining&nbsp;Science'&nbsp;</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In mid-April, just a week after the Harvard study came out,&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-proposes-retain-naaqs-particulate-matter" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">posted a proposed decision</a>&nbsp;to retain the current regulatory standards for fine particle pollution, a decision that ignored evidence showing that strengthening the standards would save&nbsp;lives.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Leaving the standards alone is a threat to public health, because thousands of premature deaths each year could be prevented by a more stringent science-based standard that meets the legal requirements of the Clean Air Act,” Frey told&nbsp;DeSmog.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gina McCarthy, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council and former&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;Administrator under the Obama administration, called&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>’s decision to retain the particle pollution (soot) standards&nbsp;“indefensible.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span><span class="caps">EPA</span>’s own scientists say more than 12,000 lives could be saved every year by strengthening the national limits for soot,” she&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2020/200414" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">said in a statement</a>.&nbsp; ...</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[twt]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">but as Frey explained, Trump’s&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;appears to have little interest in heeding the&nbsp;science.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span><span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;political appointees are ignoring, disregarding, and sidelining science in pursuit of their ideological agenda of regulatory rollback,” he&nbsp;said.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Mr. Wheeler’s proposal to retain the current fine particle standards is a floundering example of red herrings, strawmen, and other logical fallacies,” Frey added.&nbsp;“The danger is that the courts may not be able to sort this out and, even if they do, it will take time during which Americans will continue to suffer under an inadequate&nbsp;standard.”</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/dr-tony-cox"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/dr-tony-cox</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><header open="open" sans="sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style=""><h2 class="nodetitle node-title" style="line-height: 2em; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/06/30/harvard-study-soot-pollution-death-trump-epa-cox" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Slam Dunk’ Study Finds Trump EPA’s Move Not to Tighten Air Pollution Standards Would Prematurely Kill 140,000 Americans</font></a></h2><p class="submitted desktop-only" style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/user/ddrugmand" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Dana Drugmand</a>&nbsp;• Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - 10:29</font></p></header><div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden" open="open" sans="sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style=""><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" open="open" sans="sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="min-height: 0px;"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A new&nbsp;<a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/06/26/sciadv.aba5692" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">study</a>&nbsp;from public health researchers provides the strongest evidence yet that increased exposure to a type of air pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks that's known as fine particulate matter (<span class="caps">PM2</span>.5), or&nbsp;soot, can cause premature death. This&nbsp;peer-reviewed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/htcs-meo062520.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">study of air pollution impacts on older Americans suggests</a>&nbsp;that current air quality standards set by the&nbsp;<span class="caps">U.S.</span>&nbsp;Environmental Protection Agency (<span class="caps">EPA</span>) do not protect public health, and that strengthening the standards could save over 140,000 American lives over a&nbsp;decade.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In praising&nbsp;this study as a “slam dunk,” one former&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>&nbsp;air pollution scientist warned that the Trump&nbsp;<span class="caps">EPA</span>, which is trying to maintain the current standards,&nbsp;“ignores it at their peril.</font></p></div></div></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><div class="byline" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px; display: flex; flex-flow: column nowrap; align-items: flex-start; justify-content: normal; max-width: 680px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><div class="authors" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; width: auto; margin-bottom: 12px; text-transform: uppercase; display: inline-flex; margin-right: 10px;"><div class="author-name" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0.875rem; display: inline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a aria-label="Susanne Rust" href="https://www.latimes.com/people/susanne-rust" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; text-decoration-line: none;">SUSANNE RUST</a>,&nbsp;</font><div class="author-contributors" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0.875rem; display: inline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/people/tony-barboza" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; text-decoration-line: none;">TONY BARBOZA</a></span></font></div></div></div><div class="published-date" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0.875rem; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-transform: uppercase; word-break: keep-all; margin-right: 5px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="published-day" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MARCH 21, 2019</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></div></div><div class="page-article-container" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 680px; margin: 0px auto;"><div class="page-article-body" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="rich-text-article-body" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="rich-text-article-body-content rich-text-body" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.9375rem;"><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration’s reliance on industry-funded environmental specialists is again coming under fire, this time by researchers who say that Louis Anthony “Tony” Cox Jr., who leads a key Environmental Protection Agency advisory board on air pollution, is a “fringe” scientist and ideologue pushing policies detrimental to public health.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a paper published Thursday in the&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://science.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaw9460" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">journal Science</a>, two air pollution scientists say that Cox is ignoring consensus viewpoints on the effects of smog and particulate pollution.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The scientists, Gretchen Goldman of the Union of Concerned Scientists and&nbsp;<b>Francesca Dominici of Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health,</b>&nbsp;suggest that Cox risks upending “the time-tested and scientifically backed” process that has led to nationwide improvements in air quality and better protection of people’s health.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Cox is a Denver-based risk assessment consultant who has worked for the oil, chemical and healthcare industries — as well as international, federal and state government agencies. Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/epa-unveils-new-industry-friendlier-science-advisory-boards" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">appointed him to the seven-person Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee</a>&nbsp;in November 2017. Congress has charged the committee with providing the EPA with scientific advice and peer review on air-pollution-related issues.</font></p><div class="enhancement" data-align-center="" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; width: 680px; clear: both; margin: 30px 0px;"><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><span style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-secret-science-20190219-story.html" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">READ MORE: Scientist says some pollution is good for you — a disputed claim Trump’s EPA has embraced »</font></a></span></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The panel is reviewing the agency’s&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/isa/recordisplay.cfm?deid=341593" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">1,800-page assessment of small-particle air pollution</a>, also known as particulate matter, which most health experts suggest can lead to illness and death. Parts of California have some of the nation’s highest concentrations of fine particulate matter, so Cox’s recommendations could have implications for polluted regions of the stat</span>e.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The assessment, which cited more than 2,800 papers, and was written by more than 50 of the world’s experts on air pollution and reviewed by an additional 52, concluded that even at very low concentrations, small-particle air pollution can be deadly.</b></font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But at a&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/MeetingCal/33BB9FC41F61A40085258328005B3EF6/%24File/CASAC+PM+Dec+12-13+2018+Minutes.pdf" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">meeting in December</a>, and in a draft letter written to Administrator Andrew Wheeler this month, Cox suggested his committee wasn’t convinced, and he accused the agency’s scientists of using bad science and subjectivity in their conclusion.</font></p><div class="enhancement" data-align-center="" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; width: 680px; clear: both; margin: 30px 0px;"><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;" /><div id="nativo_1" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“My viewpoint on particulate matter science is that it should be held to the same standards as other types of applied science,” Cox said in an email, responding to questions from The Times.</b></font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Referring to the December meeting, Cox said his panel suggested the agency include more research in its draft,<b>&nbsp;provide clearer definitions of key terms and adhere “to the scientific method.”</b></font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/91f60aa908b1d12485257f2a007abbc0/fe50d8fd06ea9b17852583b6006b7499/%24FILE/03-07-19%20Draft%20CASAC%20PM%20ISA%20Report.pdf" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">in a draft letter to Wheeler</a>, he recommended the EPA put together another draft and allow the committee access to other experts in the field to help them review the draft, as needed.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The committee, whose members have all been appointed since Trump came into office, is smaller than former air pollution committees. The panel is required to have seven members but in former iterations was padded with extra members to ensure a broad range of expertise.</font></p><div class="enhancement" data-align-center="" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; width: 680px; clear: both; margin: 30px 0px;"><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In addition, last October, the EPA disbanded two air pollution committees — the particulate matter committee and the ozone committee — that, in the past, had contributed expertise and knowledge to the air pollution committee’s reviews and recommendations.</b></font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The current panel includes no statisticians, experts in modeling risk assessment or epidemiologists, for instance. And two of the seven panelists have explicitly called for the EPA to reconstitute the disbanded particulate matter committee, while a third&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/MeetingCal/33BB9FC41F61A40085258328005B3EF6/%24File/CASAC+PM+Dec+12-13+2018+Minutes.pdf" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">noted at the meeting</a>&nbsp;in December that he didn’t have the expertise to evaluate parts of the draft.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Prior to the release of this draft ... without consulting” the committee, wrote Mark Frampton, a committee member and professor emeritus at the University of Rochester Medical Center, “EPA disbanded the expert PM review panel that had been previously appointed to assist.</b></font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The seven chartered … members by themselves do not have the breadth and depth of knowledge or expertise in many areas that are necessary to adequately advise the EPA,” he wrote.</font></p><div class="enhancement" data-align-center="" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; width: 680px; clear: both; margin: 30px 0px;"><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The authors of the Science journal paper say Cox is putting the EPA in a tenuous position: If they ignore consensus science on air pollution and accept his viewpoint, they will potentially set air pollution standards that could risk public health.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, if they refuse to follow his committee’s advice, then the agency would be setting a dangerous precedent by not listening to “(what should be) its top science advisers” and thereby eroding confidence in the concept of peer review in policy decision making.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The EPA did not respond to questions about the Science paper</b>. EPA spokesman John Konkus said in a statement, “We appreciate the work of the CASAC and we will review the report,” apparently referring to the committee’s upcoming report on particulate standards.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since Trump took office, his EPA has repeatedly relied upon industry-funded scientists to set policy —<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;including allowing a University of Massachusetts [amherst bozo hormesis] professor who believes low doses of radiation and toxic chemicals are good for people&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-secret-science-20190219-story.html" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">to write proposed rulings</a>.</span></font></p><div class="enhancement" data-align-center="" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; width: 680px; clear: both; margin: 30px 0px;"><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some say Cox is part of that pattern.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“It’s a doozy,” said H. Christopher Frey, a professor of environmental engineering at North Carolina State University and former chair of the air committee.</b></font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox “is using his position as chair to advance an ideology he personally wants to see,” said Frey, who described Cox as being as far out of the mainstream as a scientist could be.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">California has an outsize stake in air pollution science because it is home to the largest number of people exposed to the highest levels of fine-particle pollution. Tougher standards, and threat of federal sanctions for not meeting them, would force state and local regulators to pursue more aggressive measures to tackle emissions from everything from cars and trucks to agricultural operations.</font></p><div class="enhancement" data-align-center="" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; width: 680px; clear: both; margin: 30px 0px;"><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent years,&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Flocal%2Flanow%2Fla-me-smog-streak-20180921-story.html&data=02%7C01%7Csusanne.rust%40latimes.com%7Cef95cac5d5e4484a4b1f08d6ad586911%7Cf7da0482aed242fa80233b240fb6598d%7C0%7C0%7C636886992561072036&sdata=QMGWxo4sROrDu6sWYC%2Bn%2FKwolXSQX9Vg1P7%2FXBiwfTM%3D&reserved=0" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">the number of bad air days&nbsp;</a>has increased amid rising temperatures, stagnant weather conditions and&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Flocal%2Flanow%2Fla-me-smog-slowdown-20180430-story.html&data=02%7C01%7Csusanne.rust%40latimes.com%7Cef95cac5d5e4484a4b1f08d6ad586911%7Cf7da0482aed242fa80233b240fb6598d%7C0%7C0%7C636886992561082046&sdata=OB2eOi0fvtGXFdVsNAcOHxbuDJ108kKNx1OMw0Bcr4A%3D&reserved=0" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">a slowdown in the pace of emissions reductions</a>.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Southern California still has the nation’s highest levels of ozone&nbsp;</b>— the lung-searing gas in warm-weather smog, which triggers asthma and other respiratory illnesses — and does not meet federal standards for fine-particle pollution, composed of tiny health-damaging specks of pollution that build up in winter air, lodge deep in the lungs and are linked to cardiovascular disease.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The San Joaquin Valley in particular struggles with some of the nation’s worst fine-particle pollution, which builds up in the air in winter months and shrouds the area of 4 million people in an unhealthful pall.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But there is hope, health experts say. Health studies have shown that a long-term trend of improvement in fine-particle pollution is, over time, resulting in fewer early deaths and higher life expectancy. In communities across Southern California, researchers have in recent years measured children’s lungs&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Flocal%2Flanow%2Fla-me-clean-air-lungs-children-20150304-story.html&data=02%7C01%7Csusanne.rust%40latimes.com%7Cef95cac5d5e4484a4b1f08d6ad586911%7Cf7da0482aed242fa80233b240fb6598d%7C0%7C0%7C636886992561102057&sdata=ziRCzkjsZuAtJgTrUM0qA8lof%2BKQ5xDrMBF3dn6jr08%3D&reserved=0" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">growing bigger and stronger</a>&nbsp;as air quality improves.</font></p><div class="enhancement" data-align-center="" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; width: 680px; clear: both; margin: 30px 0px;"><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scientists and medical experts have urged stricter health standards, based on the latest health studies, which they say are crucial if the nation is to continue making progress reducing the health damage from air pollution. They say Southern California — where millions are exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution — would benefit more than anywhere in the country from tougher air quality standards on ozone and fine particulate matter.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Reducing air pollution below current federal limits&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Flocal%2Flanow%2Fla-me-pollution-deaths-20160810-snap-story.html&data=02%7C01%7Csusanne.rust%40latimes.com%7Cef95cac5d5e4484a4b1f08d6ad586911%7Cf7da0482aed242fa80233b240fb6598d%7C0%7C0%7C636886992561102057&sdata=WNHs0FtStkGpwocX4vJuYmH%2FXK8LWgXJoE8qjJ53RFQ%3D&reserved=0" target="blank" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">would&nbsp;<b>prevent 3,632 deaths</b></a><b>&nbsp;a year in California,</b>&nbsp;<b>more than one-third</b>&nbsp;of the 9,320 early deaths linked to dirty air nationwide, scientists at New York University and the American Thoracic Society estimated in a 2016 study.</font></p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox’s draft letter will be reviewed by the rest of the committee March 28, when the panel meets again to finalize its comments to the EPA administrator.</font></p></div></div></div></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://desmog.co.uk/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://desmog.co.uk/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The head of a federal committee tasked with advising the&nbsp;Environmental Protection Agency (<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>) on air quality science&nbsp;recently disparaged a new Harvard study examining the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/climate/air-pollution-coronavirus-covid.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">link between air pollution and coronavirus fatalities</a>&nbsp;across the country</b>. The&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;adviser’s critical remarks appear consistent with his track record of disregarding robust science on air pollution and health risks in his consulting work for industry clients such as tobacco and fossil fuel&nbsp;interests.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Dr. Louis Anthony (Tony) Cox Jr., who is chair of&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>’s&nbsp;<a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabpeople.nsf/WebCommittees/CASAC" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee</a>, criticized a&nbsp;<a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/covid-pm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">preliminary study</a>&nbsp;from the <b>Harvard&nbsp;</b><span class="caps" style="">T.H.</span>&nbsp;Chan School of Public Health in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/bogus-analysis-trump-appointed-epa-advisers-criticize-study-linking-air-pollution-and-coronavirus-death" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">comments made to the Washington Examiner</a></span>.&nbsp;<b>Cox — who previously produced his own&nbsp;study&nbsp;on air pollution and health risks that was funded and edited by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/american-petroleum-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">American Petroleum Institute</a>&nbsp;— questioned the validity of the Harvard study, which was released publicly in early April but has yet to undergo formal peer&nbsp;review.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The study, which&nbsp;links&nbsp;the type of fine particulate air pollution produced by&nbsp;cars and power plants&nbsp;to higher&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">COVID</span>-19 mortality rates, has been submitted for review and publication to the New England Journal of&nbsp;Medicine.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>It was rushed out without being properly vetted,” Cox&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/bogus-analysis-trump-appointed-epa-advisers-criticize-study-linking-air-pollution-and-coronavirus-death" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">said</a>. He called the study a “bogus piece of analysis” and “technically unsound.” According to Cox, the study is “fundamentally flawed” and “has sensational policy implications, none of which are&nbsp;trustworthy.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That study found that even small increases in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/particulate-matter-pm-basics" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">fine particulate matter (<span class="caps" style="">PM2</span>.5)</a>&nbsp;exposure is associated with a statistically significant increase in the&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">COVID</span>-19 death rate. It is the first study to examine the link between long-term particulate matter exposure and coronavirus risks in the U.S., and the results are consistent with other peer-reviewed&nbsp;studies finding a correlation between&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">COVID</span>&nbsp;fatalities and air pollution in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/20/air-pollution-may-be-key-contributor-to-covid-19-deaths-study" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Europe</a>&nbsp;and,&nbsp;<a href="https://law.tulane.edu/sites/law.tulane.edu/files/Files/Terrell%20-%20COVID-19%20-%20PM%202.5%20Louisiana%202020-5-14%20WEB%20VERSION.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">most recently</a>, a preliminary&nbsp;analysis in Louisiana's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/louisiana-cancer-alley-communities-gulf-petrochemical-pollution" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Cancer Alley</a>. .</span>..[twt]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Harvard study has already garnered attention in Democratic policy circles.</b> A trio of Democratic Representatives&nbsp;<a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/sites/democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/files/documents/EPA.2020.4.21.%20Letter%20re%20Enforcement.OI__0.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">cited it in a letter</a>&nbsp;expressing concerns over an&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;policy to relax environmental compliance obligations during the pandemic. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s office also cited it in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-healey-brief-environmental-pollution-contributes-to-disparate-impact-of-covid-19-pandemic" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">recent brief on environmental injustice and coronavirus</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democractic presidential candidate Joe Biden referenced the study in an&nbsp;<a href="https://joebiden.com/9-key-elements-of-joe-bidens-plan-for-a-clean-energy-revolution/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">online fact sheet</a>&nbsp;about his plan for a “clean energy revolution&nbsp;and environmental justice.” And in April the&nbsp;<a href="https://climatecrisis.house.gov/news/press-releases/harvard-researchers-brief-committee-members-covid-19-air-pollution-study" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">study authors discussed their findings</a>&nbsp;with members of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ccee.ncsu.edu/people/frey/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">H. Christopher Frey</a>, who has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/05/epa-decides-reject-latest-science-endanger-public-health-and-ignore-law-keeping-outdated-fine-particle-air-pollution" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">studied air pollution for over 30 years</a>&nbsp;and chaired&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee from 2012 to 2015, the Harvard study linking fine particulate matter exposure and worsened coronavirus outcomes “is no doubt the first of more to come</span>.” He said the Harvard researchers behind this study previously published epidemiological research showing the harmful effects of human exposure to fine particles, which is part of a robust science indicating deadly impacts of fine particulate (or particle)&nbsp;air pollution.&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>What is lost in the media coverage of the recent Harvard study is the strong causal link between human exposure to fine particles — before, during, and after the pandemic — and premature death,” Frey told DeSmog via email.&nbsp;“There is strong evidence, based on multiple peer-reviewed studies that span a wide range of locations, population demographics, housing characteristics, and so on, that exposure to fine particles at levels below the current air quality standards causes premature death and numerous disease&nbsp;outcomes.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But for Cox, who now leads the&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;advisory committee that Frey formerly chaired, the Harvard study’s findings are not convincing. “I would have zero confidence in the published results of this study because its interpretation, design, and analysis are fundamentally flawed,” he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/bogus-analysis-trump-appointed-epa-advisers-criticize-study-linking-air-pollution-and-coronavirus-death" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">told the Washington Examiner</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The statistical models developed by the Harvard team ignore crucial real-world interactions among risk factors, such as that&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">PM2</span>.5 cannot kill people where there are no people to kill,” Cox explained to DeSmog. He said the models also “omit crucial information and demographic variables” that could help explain reported associations. “For example, the model omits a variable, the 'rural-urban continuum,' that could help examine whether the reported association between&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">PM2</span>.5 and&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">COVID</span>-19 mortality risk is explained by the fact that both are higher in more crowded areas,” he&nbsp;said.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Francesca Dominici, Harvard biostatistician and senior author of the&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">COVID</span>&nbsp;study,&nbsp;defended Cox's critiques to the Washington Examiner, saying the team took into account potential confounding variables such as population density and separately analyzed urban and rural counties, with “very similar”&nbsp;results.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A group of 10&nbsp;agriculture and biofuels organizations called out Cox’s dismissive comments in a&nbsp;<a href="https://dakotaagenergy.com/letter-to-epa-regarding-covid-19-fine-particulates/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">May 8 letter</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;Administrator&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/andrew-wheeler" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Andrew Wheeler</a>, a former coal industry&nbsp;lobbyist.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>The Harvard School of Public Health has done work with&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;for years. It is shocking to see the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee be so dismissive of such a highly respected independent party,” a spokesman for the group said in a press release. The letter also points to Cox’s close association with the American Petroleum Institute, with the letter describing him as “the proverbial ‘fox in charge of the chicken&nbsp;coop.’”</font></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Longtime Industry&nbsp;Consultant</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Tony Cox is a statistician focusing on risk analysis and is president of Denver-based consulting firm Cox Associates. He has a&nbsp;<a href="http://cox-associates.com/index_htm_files/Coxbio.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">long history of consulting work</a>&nbsp;on behalf of corporate clients including in the tobacco, fossil fuel, and chemical industries. His industry ties include work in service of tobacco giant Phillip Morris and trade associations such as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Chemistry_Council" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">American Chemistry Council</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/national-mining-association" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">National Mining Association</a>, and the American Petroleum Institute (<span class="caps" style="">API</span>).</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" /><ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Cox “has a history of attacking established research on the health risks of air pollution</b>,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060109129" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">according to&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">E&E</span>&nbsp;News</a>, and his approach has been to emphasize scientific uncertainty and to question standard risk assessment. He has published studies, for example, that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1047279714005079" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">question</a>&nbsp;the relationship between levels of fine particulate matter (<span class="caps" style="">PM2</span>.5) and mortality&nbsp;rates.</font></li></ul><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" /><div class="getty embed image" style="display: inline-block; width: 509px; max-width: 509px;"><div style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">one of those studies,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408444.2017.1311838" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">published in 2017 in the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology</a>, was not only sponsored, but also copy-edited, by&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">API</span>, a&nbsp;major oil and gas industry trade group.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060109129" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">According to&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">E&E</span>&nbsp;News</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, “Cox denied that&nbsp;</span><span class="caps" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">API</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;influenced his work and said the organization did not suggest any substantive changes.” Cox has done other research backed by&nbsp;</span><span class="caps" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">API</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;into air pollution and health risks, as well as the carcinogenic risks of benzene, a chemical in&nbsp;gasoline.</span></font></div></div><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>When asked whether his past industry funding sources could affect his research approach and stance on health risks of air pollution, Cox said the short answer is no. He defended his&nbsp;</b><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259011331930015X" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><b>adherence to what he calls “sound science</b>”</a>&nbsp;that demands a “more exacting” analysis and higher burden of proof compared to the traditional weight-of-evidence approach. “I believe that adhering to principles and methods of sound science, which leave no room for what funding sources believe or want, serves both science and the public interest far better than other approaches, and will continue to apply that approach in reaching conclusions,” Cox told&nbsp;DeSmog.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Studies show that industry-funded research may bias results and tends to produce more favorable results for its backers, in areas from&nbsp;<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2007-18356-004" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">psychology</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30617.x" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">medicine</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3876974/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">sugar and obesity</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox acknowledged that his approach has been “met with enormous backlash.” Frey said Cox's treatment of air pollution risk assessment is “disregarding the&nbsp;law.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Clean Air Act requires that&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;set air quality standards that protect public health with an adequate margin of safety.&nbsp;The standards should be set based not just on known, but also anticipated, adverse effects,” Frey explained. “With Dr. Cox leading the way, the current [Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee] has imposed a burden of proof for evidence of adverse effects far beyond that required by the Clean Air&nbsp;Act.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/us-chamber-commerce" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="caps" style="">U.S.</span>&nbsp;Chamber of Commerce</a>&nbsp;nominated Cox to chair&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee</b>, and former&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;head&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/scott-pruitt" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Scott Pruitt</a>&nbsp;ushered Cox into that role as part of a move that&nbsp;replaced many of the independent scientists on the agency’s Science Advisory Board with industry-affiliated&nbsp;experts.</font></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Purging Independent Scientists From&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;Advisory&nbsp;Board</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/09/01/multiple-industry-funded-nominations-epa-clean-air-advisory-committee" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">noted in 2017</a>, Cox was one of three nominees to the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee that raised red flags. The other two were S. Stanley Young, who is affiliated with climate science–denying&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Heartland Institute</a>, and Deane Waldman, who directs the Koch, Exxon, and tobacco industry-funded&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/texas-public-policy-foundation" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Texas Public Policy Foundation</a>’s Public Health Center. Cox became chair of the committee and both he and Young were put onto&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>’s Science Advisory Board.&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Senators Tom Carper (D-<span class="caps" style="">DE</span>) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-<span class="caps" style="">RI</span>) raised concerns about these two ultimate&nbsp;appointments in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/1/after-pruitt-bars-scientists-with-epa-grants-from-advisory-committees-carper-and-whitehouse-highlight-concerns-with-new-epa-appointees-conflicts-of-interest" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">January 9, 2018 letter</a>&nbsp;to then-<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;Administrator Pruitt. “</b>Specifically, it appears that public commenters warned that Drs. Louis Anthony (Tony) Cox, Jr. (a researcher for the petroleum industry) and S. Stanley Young (a researcher for the pharmaceutical and petroleum industry) may have financial conflicts of interest, may risk an appearance of impartiality, and may lack the scientific expertise necessary to serve on one or more Federal Advisory Committees,” they&nbsp;wrote.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The senators also expressed concern with Pruitt’s decision to bar scientists who received&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;grant funding from serving on&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;advisory committees and to instead appoint individuals with clear ties to regulated&nbsp;industries.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>We are concerned that some of the newly-appointed members of these nonpartisan scientific advisory committees and boards may have financial and ethical conflicts of interests,” they wrote. “In addition, some of these individuals may not possess the appropriate level of scientific expertise or credentials. This underscores our concern that your actions to replace many highly-qualified members of these committees — including the unprecedented action to remove any scientist who was a recipient of&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;grants from eligibility — has led to Federal Advisory Committees that are not balanced in viewpoints, and to the appointment of committee members who are either not qualified or not impartial. This approach undermines the process of providing sound, science-based advice that&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;can use as a basis for environmental regulations that are aimed at protecting human health and the environment.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A federal court&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2020/200415" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">recently ruled</a>&nbsp;that the&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;cannot prohibit its grant recipients from serving on its advisory&nbsp;panels.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>’s Science Advisory Board generally does have some industry-affiliated scientists — they made up 40 percent of the board under President Obama — but under Trump they have come to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/epa-swaps-top-science-advisers-with-industry-allies/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">dominate</a>&nbsp;the agency’s science board, comprising 68 percent of the&nbsp;members.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Reveal News&nbsp;<a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/epa-swaps-top-science-advisers-with-industry-allies/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">explained</a>&nbsp;in 2017, “Pruitt transformed the board from a panel of the nation’s top environmental experts to one dominated by industry-funded scientists and state government officials who have fought federal&nbsp;regulations.”</font></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'Sidelining&nbsp;Science'&nbsp;</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In mid-April, just a week after the Harvard study came out,&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-proposes-retain-naaqs-particulate-matter" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">posted a proposed decision</a>&nbsp;to retain the current regulatory standards for fine particle pollution, a decision that ignored evidence showing that strengthening the standards would save&nbsp;lives.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Leaving the standards alone is a threat to public health, because thousands of premature deaths each year could be prevented by a more stringent science-based standard that meets the legal requirements of the Clean Air Act,” Frey told&nbsp;DeSmog.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gina McCarthy, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council and former&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;Administrator under the Obama administration, called&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>’s decision to retain the particle pollution (soot) standards&nbsp;“indefensible.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span><span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>’s own scientists say more than 12,000 lives could be saved every year by strengthening the national limits for soot,” she&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2020/200414" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">said in a statement</a>.&nbsp; ...</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[twt]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">but as Frey explained, Trump’s&nbsp;<span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;appears to have little interest in heeding the&nbsp;science.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span><span class="caps" style="">EPA</span>&nbsp;political appointees are ignoring, disregarding, and sidelining science in pursuit of their ideological agenda of regulatory rollback,” he&nbsp;said.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Mr. Wheeler’s proposal to retain the current fine particle standards is a floundering example of red herrings, strawmen, and other logical fallacies,” Frey added.&nbsp;“The danger is that the courts may not be able to sort this out and, even if they do, it will take time during which Americans will continue to suffer under an inadequate&nbsp;standard.”</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15032019/air-pollution-trump-epa-science-advisers-health-risk-fossil-fuel-chemical-tobacco-industry">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15032019/air-pollution-trump-epa-science-advisers-health-risk-fossil-fuel-chemical-tobacco-industry</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>For two years, the Trump administration has been planting seeds of change in the Environmental Protection Agency—installing allies of regulated industries onto its elite panels of science advisers. That effort now has borne fruit in dramatic fashion.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The EPA's new science advisers, sweeping aside decades of research on the grave health risks of fine particle air pollution, have launched a drive to force the agency to give greater weight to a handful of contrarian studies that dispute the harmful effects of soot.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Particulate matter is the pollution caused by combustion, a mixture of solid and liquid droplets that forms in the burning of fossil fuels or wood. The health risks of particulate matter have been an underpinning of the EPA's cost-benefit analysis of a number of air pollution regulations, including those meant to address climate change, like the Obama administration's Clean Air Act.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The science is well-established—the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ambient-(outdoor)-air-quality-and-health" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">World Health Organization&nbsp;</a>estimates that there are 4.2 million premature deaths a year due to fine particle pollution, making it one of the leading environmental health risks globally. But allies of the fossil fuel industry have vigorously disputed the validity of fine particle pollution studies since they first emerged in the 1990s.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Significantly, the health damages from particle and other pollution coming from the combustion of fossil fuels have also been used by the EPA to justify controls on carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Controlling climate change has important co-benefits, the agency has reasoned. The Trump administration and its industry allies oppose this logic.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More Weight for 'Discordant' Claims?&nbsp;</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The latest scientific dispute centers around the EPA's&nbsp;<a href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/isa/recordisplay.cfm?deid=341593" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">draft assessment</a>&nbsp;of the science on particulate matter (PM), a comprehensive review that the agency is required by law to conduct every few years to update the state of the science on several key pollutants. EPA released its draft review last fall.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It affirmed the agency's previous findings that the science points consistently and overwhelmingly to a "causal relationship" between PM pollution and premature deaths. The assessment concludes the greatest risk is due to particles less than 2.5 microns in width, and tha<b>t PM2.5</b>&nbsp;is associated with a range of cardiovascular and respiratory effects.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For the first time, the EPA concluded that the evidence was strong enough to show a "likely" causal relationship between long-term PM2.5 exposure and cancer, as well as nervous system effects. The EPA concluded, as it has in the past, that there is evidence of health risks even at extremely low levels of PM exposure.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Now, in a harshly worded&nbsp;<a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/ea5d9a9b55cc319285256cbd005a472e/fe50d8fd06ea9b17852583b6006b7499!OpenDocument" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">draft review,</a>&nbsp;the Trump administration's science advisors are blasting those findings as based on "unverifiable opinions" and lacking in scientific support.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The advisers are members of a seven-member panel called the Clean Air Science Advisory Committee.</b>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Although it is clear the members are not unified in their critique—individual members attached separate letters—the document calls for "substantial revisions" to EPA's assessment of PM, including giving more weight to what it called the "discordant" evidence among the 2,800 published studies cited in the EPA's 1,900-page science assessment.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Substantial discordant and conflicting evidence remains ignored or unresolved," the Trump administration-appointed CASAC wrote, "leading to repeated assertions that the literature shows consistent and coherent positive associations when in fact it shows a mixture of positive and negative results."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked for comment on the critique, a spokesperson for the EPA said by email: "We appreciate the work of the CASAC and we will review the report."</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who Are New Committee Members Listening To?</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The CASAC, now chaired by<b> Louis Anthony "Tony" Cox, Jr.</b>, a Denver-based consultant, offers a few examples of the studies it wants to see the EPA give more weight to. Among them are studies that are authored, in fact, by Cox himself—whose clients have included the<b>&nbsp;American Petroleum Institute, the tobacco industry and the chemical industry.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Other studies mentioned by the CASAC are by S. Stanley Young, a former pharmaceutical industry statistician based in Raleigh, N.C., who is an adviser to the&nbsp;<b>Heartland</b>Institute, a conservative think tank that has led a years-long campaign to discredit climate science. Young is now also an EPA science adviser.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The CASAC also pointed to the work of James Enstrom,</b>&nbsp;a Los Angeles epidemiologist who for years has questioned the health risks of particulate matter. A former tobacco industry researcher, Enstrom was a plaintiff in a 2016 lawsuit brought by the fossil fuel industry-funded Energy and Environment Legal Institute that challenged the makeup of the previous CASAC.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Many of the environmental scientists who were appointed to EPA's advisory panels had received funding from EPA at some point in their careers, which the Enstrom suit said was a conflict of interest. In 2017, Trump's first EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, made the same argument when he replaced scientific experts from the existing science advisory boards with new appointees—including a number of industry allies and consultants, like Cox and Young.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'CASAC Itself Lacks Necessary Expertise'</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One scientist who was among those removed from the CASAC last year, H. Christopher Frey, an environmental engineer at the University of North Carolina, said the harsh science critique from the Trump administration-appointed committee comes amid "numerous major changes to the [air quality standards] review process that collectively undermine its quality, integrity and credibility."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Most astonishing is the arrogant and insulting tone of this letter toward EPA scientific staff," Frey, a former chairman of the CASAC, said in an email to InsideClimate News. Frey dismissed as "patently absurd" the document's assertion that the EPA's approach on particulate matter was unscientific. "The statement is ironic given that the CASAC itself lacks necessary expertise," he said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, the CASAC recommended that it be given access to additional technical expertise in order to complete its review of EPA science on particulate matter. Two members of the CASAC called for the EPA to reconstitute a 20-member special review panel on particulate matter that EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler disbanded in October, just prior to the start of the peer review. That panel included experts in the science of particulate matter and health effects—expertise that is now missing on the CASAC. Although much of the science on the health risks of particulate matter is from large human studies, there are no epidemiologists on the current CASAC.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In one striking passage of its draft peer review, the CASAC said it is unable to reach consensus on the link between particulate matter and mortality—</b>the "causality determination of mortality from PM2.5 exposure." Some members "are of the opinion that, although uncertainties remain, the evidence supporting the causal relationship between PM2.5 exposure and mortality is robust, diverse, and convincing," the document said. But other committee members think EPA should provide a better justification for its determination that there is a causal relationship between PM exposure and premature death.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daniel Greenbaum, president of the Boston-based Health Effects Institute (HEI), a research institute that has conducted major studies on air pollution, said that he was surprised at that passage.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Given that there is more than a decade worth of work now looking at the epidemiology, the toxicology, and a number of other things to see whether or not PM can contribute to mortality, there's pretty robust literature that says that," said Greenbaum. HEI has offered its own critiques of some aspects of EPA's assessment—for example, it does not agree with EPA's conclusion on nervous system effects. But HEI does not dispute EPA's fundamental conclusion on mortality risk. "By most standards, people would say that the evidence has strengthened over the last 20 years," Greenbaum said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Greenbaum noted that the committee's review document is only a draft. The CASAC has set a conference call for March 28 to discuss the document and the next steps before submitting its final recommendations to Wheeler.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">reveal:</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Another new board member,&nbsp;<b style="">Louis Anthony Cox,</b>&nbsp;early in his career worked for consulting firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/TobaccoIndustry_Project_List.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Arthur D. Little</a>, which contributed to the industry’s discredited effort to develop a “safer” cigarette.<b> He later testified on behalf of Philip Morris and three other tobacco giants against a smoker’s husband who sued the companies for lying about the dangers of cigarettes.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cox<a href="https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/#id=gnxd0001" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">&nbsp;received at least $22,000</a>&nbsp;for his services from tobacco industry law firm <b>Shook, Hardy & Bacon</b></span><b>&nbsp;– the same firm that<a href="http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.91.11.1749" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">&nbsp;helped Philip Morris</a>&nbsp;create “sound science” guidelines to challenge the EPA’s listing of secondhand smoke as a carcinogen and in 2016</b>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.shb.com/news/2016/02/supreme-court-blocks-epa" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">sued the EPA on behalf of the coal industry</a>&nbsp;to prevent the agency from enforcing carbon emission reductions under its<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/climate/clean-power-plan.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">&nbsp;recently repealed</a>&nbsp;Clean Power Plan.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In addition to his membership on the Science Advisory Board, Cox has been tapped as chairman of a separate EPA board, the<b> Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Cox, who runs consulting firm&nbsp;<a href="https://cox-associates.com/services/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; line-height: inherit;">Cox Associates</a>, told Reveal in an email that he’s <b>used models to calculate the “excess risk of lung cancers caused by different smoking exposure histories” </b>for various private- and public-sector organizations, including Philip Morris and the EPA. That work, he said, has helped him “appreciate some of the most common errors, heuristics and biases that can affect the judgments of scientists … in interpreting data.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In addition to his work on behalf of the tobacco industry, Cox<a href="http://www.annalsofepidemiology.org/article/S1047-2797(14)00507-9/fulltext" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">&nbsp;also has questioned</a>&nbsp;the benefits of reducing particulate pollution in a paper sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute.</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BS?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump administration&nbsp;rolled out a new policy&nbsp;Tuesday&nbsp;that states scientists receiving Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants cannot serve on the agency's advisory boards, a move critics&nbsp;decried as part of a war on independent science.</font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The policy, rolled out at an EPA event by Administrator&nbsp;<span class="rollover-people" data-behavior="rolloverpeople" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><a class="rollover-people-link" data-nid="349604" href="https://thehill.com/people/edward-scott-pruitt" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; position: relative;">Scott Pruitt</a></span>, bars hundreds of expert scientists working in environmental and health fields at universities from serving on the boards. Conversely, it&nbsp;would almost certainly increase the representation from companies and industry groups on the panels.</font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-10/documents/final_draft_fac_directive-10.31.2017.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">policy change was</a>&nbsp;quickly denounced by Democrats and environmental groups, who&nbsp;called it a poorly disguised&nbsp;attempt&nbsp;to push out experts at odds with industry.</font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />But Republicans, who have long been seeking the same goals through other means, applauded the policy.</font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pruitt presented the&nbsp;move as a way to reduce conflicts of interest. EPA grantees, he said, inevitably are conflicted because of the money they receive from the agency.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Those advisory committees have given us the bedrock of science to ensure that we’re making informed decisions,” Pruitt said at the event.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“And when we have members of those committees that have received tens of millions of dollars in grants at the same time that they’re advising this agency on rulemaking, that is not good and that’s not right,” he said.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPA advisory committee members have gotten $77 million in EPA grants over the last three years, Pruitt said.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We want to ensure that there’s integrity in the process, and that the scientists who are advising us are doing so with not any type of appearance of conflict," he said. "And when you receive that much money … there’s a question that arises about independence."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Pruitt cited a Bible verse from the book of Joshua, in which Joshua led the people of Israel to the promised land but asked them to choose between worshipping God or their "false gods."</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"Choose this day whom you will serve," Pruitt said, quoting Joshua.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This is sort of like the Joshua principle," he said. "Either service on the committee to provide counsel to us in an independent fashion or choose the grant. But you can’t do both."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pruitt had&nbsp;<a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/355866-epa-to-restrict-scientific-advisers-who-get-agency-grants" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">teased</a>&nbsp;the grantee policy earlier this month at a Heritage Foundation event.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The&nbsp;directive issued Tuesday also seeks more state, local and tribal government representation on the advisory boards, more geographic diversity and new candidates with “fresh perspectives” on the matters before the committees.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State, local and tribal government representatives also get an exemption to Pruitt’s ban on grantees.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The committees at issue include the Science Advisory Board and the Clean Air Safety Advisory Committee.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those panels do not have the power to issue regulations on their own. But they are often called upon by the administrator and others&nbsp;at the&nbsp;EPA for their expertise on regulatory and other matters.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pruitt did not announce the membership of the boards at Tuesday’s event with lawmakers and activists, saying instead that announcement would come in the next week.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pruitt did, however, name the chairmen of each of the three most high-profile panels: Michael Honeycutt, head toxicologist at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, will chair the Science Advisory Board<b>; Tony Cox</b>, an independent consultant, will lead the Clean Air Safety Advisory Committee; and Paul Gilman, chief sustainability officer at waste-to-energy company <b>Covanta Energy,</b> will head the Board of Scientific Advisers.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Each man has extensive experience and education in their fields; each has also disagreed with the scientific&nbsp;basis of major Obama administration policies.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the nation’s foremost scientific societies, slammed the policy rolled out Tuesday.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rush Holt, the group’s CEO, said it “denounces the EPA administrator’s decision to disallow qualified scientific experts from providing evidence-based information as members of its science adviser boards.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This EPA decision is motivated by politics, not the desire for quality scientific information,” he said.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democrats and environmentalists joined in.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Scott Pruitt’s latest move to reject qualified scientists to make room for industry-sponsored individuals isn’t fooling anyone,” said Sen.&nbsp;<span class="rollover-people" data-behavior="rolloverpeople" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><a class="rollover-people-link" data-nid="188214" href="https://thehill.com/people/tom-carper" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; position: relative;">Tom Carper</a></span>(Del.), the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Since he arrived at the agency, Mr. Pruitt has repeatedly worked to silence EPA scientists, deny the facts and discredit science inconvenient to his agenda; now he’s trying to get rid of the scientists altogether,” Carper said.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Republicans, who are actively pushing legislation that would enforce similar standards, applauded the move.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It answers their years-long complaints that the Obama administration was creating an echo chamber and shutting out dissenting voices from panels.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“For too long, the agency’s advisory committees were not representative of the whole country,” said Sen.&nbsp;<span class="rollover-people" data-behavior="rolloverpeople" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><a class="rollover-people-link" data-nid="188202" href="https://thehill.com/people/john-barrasso" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; position: relative;">John Barrasso</a></span>&nbsp;(R-Wyo.), the environment committee’s chairman.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Today’s directive from Administrator Pruitt will ensure that the unique perspectives of Wyoming and other rural states are not left out of the conversation,” he said.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Myron Ebell, head of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s energy and environment center, said his group “strongly supports EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s sensible and long overdue reforms of the agency’s numerous advisory boards.”</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ebell also led President Trump’s transition team operation at the EPA.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The fact that some of the EPA’s advisory boards are filled with members whose research receives millions of dollars of funding from the EPA is an obvious conflict of interest that should never have been allowed to develop," he said.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who will be on the panels instead?</font></h2><p style="margin: 3.75px 0px 15px; box-sizing: inherit; width: 699px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Though the agency didn’t release a full list today, Pruitt introduced the new heads of the three main committees.</font></p><ul style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 15px 0px 15px 22.5px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 7.5px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Michael Honeycutt,</b> lead toxicologist for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in Austin, takes over as chairperson of the Science Advisory Board. Honeycutt has challenged EPA moves to tighten standards for ozone pollution. He replaces Peter Thorne, head of the University of Iowa’s Department of Occupational and Environmental Health in Iowa City.</font></li></ul><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 15px 0px 15px 22.5px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;"><li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 7.5px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new head of the scientific counselors&nbsp;panel is&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Tony Cox, an expert in risk analysis whose private consulting firm in Colorado lists industry clients in the oil and chemical industries. It was previously led by Deborah Swackhamer, a professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis who studies toxic chemicals in the environment.</span></font></li></ul><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 15px 0px 15px 22.5px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;"><li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 7.5px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On the clean air committee, it’s Paul Gilman, an executive at Covanta, a New Jersey company that handles waste, including incinerating waste to produce energy.</b>&nbsp;He worked at EPA during former President&nbsp;George W. Bush’s&nbsp;administration as the agency’s science adviser.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;He replaces Ana Diez Roux, an epidemiologist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.</span></font></li></ul></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div style=""><div id="nativo_1" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gwu dereg</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/A-Key-Cog-in-Charles-Kochs-Master-Plan-3.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/A-Key-Cog-in-Charles-Kochs-Master-Plan-3.pdf</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">D. The Trump administration has appointed a RSC scholar to key science panels Louis Anthony (Tony) Cox Jr. is listed as a scholar for the RSC. 195 In 2015, Cox submitted a comment under the auspices of the RSC criticizing the EPA’s proposed air quality standard on ozone as unwarranted.196 Cox disclosed in a December 2016 letter to the editor of a journal that his consulting firm, Cox Associates, had over the previous three years: received funding from the American Petroleum Institute and the American Chemistry Council and their members and from the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University, to investigate methods and to develop software for improved causal analytics for use in health effects research, including the health effects of crystalline silica, ozone, and fine particulate matter.197 [emphasis added]</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cox was appointed in November 2017 as chair of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), which was established by the Clean Air Act amendments of 1977.198 Cox was nominated to the position by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is a funder of the RSC. 199 Cox also was appointed to serve on the EPA’s Science Advisory Board,200 the duties of which include reviewing the quality and relevance of the scientific and technical information being used by the EPA or proposed as the basis for Agency regulations.201 Getting one of its scholars appointed to lead one of the EPA’s most important science panels and as a member of another must represent a win for the RSC.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;E. The Trump administration enacted the RSC’s call for a “regulatory budget” At least as early as 2011, Dudley began touting the idea of a “regulatory budget,” or “regulatory PAYGO,” which would require agencies to eliminate a regulation of equivalent significance for every new regulation they issue.202 While the idea of a regulatory budget was proposed decades ago, it had mostly been dormant until recently. Dudley published an article discussing this proposal in 2016 in the N.Y.U. Journal of Legislation and Public Policy. 203&nbsp;</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Weeks before the 2016 election, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pledged that he would eliminate two regulations for every one created.204 In December 2016, during the Presidentelect Trump’s transition period, RSC Professor Marcus Peacock issued a white paper outlining options to enact this proposal.205 Trump issued an executive order 10 days into his presidency stipulating that two regulations should be eliminated for every one issued.206 (As mentioned earlier, Public Citizen sued over that executive order.) 198&nbsp;</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Members of the Science Advisory Board, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (viewed on March 1, 2019), http://bit.ly/2NFwTAI; Request for Nominations of Candidates to the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) and the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB), A Notice by the Environmental Protection Agency, FEDERAL REGISTER (June 27, 2017), http://bit.ly/2SBubgh; and J<b>uliet Eilperin EPA’s new science advisers add more industry experts</b>, conservatives to the mix, THE WASHINGTON POST (Nov. 4, 2017), https://wapo.st/2INa7I9. 199 Scott Waldman, EPA science adviser allowed industry g...</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style=""><h1 class="Uo8X3b" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); height: 1px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; white-space: nowrap; width: 1px; z-index: -1000;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Search Results</font></h1><div eid="1M8lX733NOS1tgXyu7SICg" data-async-context="query:desmog%20anthony%20tony%20cox" id="rso" style="margin-top: 6px;"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 28px;"><h2 class="Uo8X3b" style="clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); height: 1px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; white-space: nowrap; width: 1px; z-index: -1000;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Web results</font></h2><div class="rc" data-hveid="CAQQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFSgAMAB6BAgEEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/dr-tony-cox" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/dr-tony-cox&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAAegQIBBAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/dr-tony-cox" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/dr-tony-cox&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAAegQIBBAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Dr. Tony Cox 1 | DeSmog</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.58; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">www.desmogblog.com<span class="eipWBe">&nbsp;› topics › dr-tony-cox</span></font></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.58; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="eipWBe" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div class="action-menu" style="display: inline; margin: 1px 3px 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=desmog+anthony+tony+cox&oq=desmog+anthony+tony+cox&aqs=chrome..69i57.7735j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b0" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQ7B0wAHoECAQQBA" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; display: inline-block; height: 12px; margin-top: 1px; user-select: none; width: 13px; cursor: pointer;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(112, 117, 122) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -3px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><ol class="action-menu-panel" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQqR8wAHoECAQQBQ" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 12px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px;"><li class="action-menu-item" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:XmXVf808-w8J:https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/dr-tony-cox+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:XmXVf808-w8J:https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/dr-tony-cox%2B%26cd%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDAAegQIBBAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:XmXVf808-w8J:https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/dr-tony-cox+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:XmXVf808-w8J:https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/dr-tony-cox%2B%26cd%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDAAegQIBBAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">A new study from public health researchers provides the strongest evidence yet that increased exposure to a type of air pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks<wbr />&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 28px;"><div class="rc" data-hveid="CAEQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFSgAMAF6BAgBEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjABegQIARAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjABegQIARAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">EPA Clean Air Panel Chair Dismisses His Oil ... - DeSmog</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.58; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">www.desmogblog.com<span class="eipWBe">&nbsp;› 2020/05/18 › epa-clean-air-co...</span></font></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.58; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="eipWBe" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div class="action-menu" style="display: inline; margin: 1px 3px 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=desmog+anthony+tony+cox&oq=desmog+anthony+tony+cox&aqs=chrome..69i57.7735j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b1" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQ7B0wAXoECAEQBA" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; display: inline-block; height: 12px; margin-top: 1px; user-select: none; width: 13px; cursor: pointer;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(112, 117, 122) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -3px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><ol class="action-menu-panel" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQqR8wAXoECAEQBQ" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 12px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px;"><li class="action-menu-item" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Hvqnyg83GeIJ:https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:Hvqnyg83GeIJ:https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid%2B%26cd%3D2%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDABegQIARAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Hvqnyg83GeIJ:https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:Hvqnyg83GeIJ:https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/18/epa-clean-air-committee-cox-harvard-air-pollution-covid%2B%26cd%3D2%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDABegQIARAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.58;">May 18, 2020 -&nbsp;</span>Dr. Louis&nbsp;Anthony&nbsp;(Tony)&nbsp;Cox&nbsp;Jr., who is chair of EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, criticized a preliminary study from the Harvard&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 28px;"><div class="rc" data-hveid="CAIQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFSgAMAJ6BAgCEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjACegQIAhAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjACegQIAhAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Top advisor to Trump's EPA is called out in major journal for his</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.58; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">www.latimes.com<span class="eipWBe">&nbsp;› local › california › la-me-epa-pollu...</span></font></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.58; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="eipWBe" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div class="action-menu" style="display: inline; margin: 1px 3px 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=desmog+anthony+tony+cox&oq=desmog+anthony+tony+cox&aqs=chrome..69i57.7735j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b2" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQ7B0wAnoECAIQBA" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; display: inline-block; height: 12px; margin-top: 1px; user-select: none; width: 13px; cursor: pointer;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(112, 117, 122) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -3px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><ol class="action-menu-panel" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQqR8wAnoECAIQBQ" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 12px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px;"><li class="action-menu-item" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RMXl3T6R6QcJ:https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:RMXl3T6R6QcJ:https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html%2B%26cd%3D3%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDACegQIAhAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RMXl3T6R6QcJ:https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:RMXl3T6R6QcJ:https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html%2B%26cd%3D3%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDACegQIAhAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.58;">Mar 21, 2019 -&nbsp;</span>... by researchers who say that Louis&nbsp;Anthony&nbsp;“Tony”&nbsp;Cox&nbsp;Jr., who leads a key Environmental Protection Agency advisory board on air pollution,&nbsp;...</font></span></a><div class="TXwUJf"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RMXl3T6R6QcJ:https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:RMXl3T6R6QcJ:https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-epa-pollution-study-20190321-story.html%2B%26cd%3D3%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDACegQIAhAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Missing:&nbsp;<s>desmog</s>&nbsp;‎| Must include:&nbsp;</font></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%22desmog%22+anthony+tony+cox&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQ5t4CMAJ6BAgCEAk" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;">desmog</a></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 28px;"><div class="rc" data-hveid="CAMQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFSgAMAN6BAgDEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjADegQIAxAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjADegQIAxAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump's Air Pollution Adviser Actually Said That Clean Air ...</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.58; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">www.motherjones.com<span class="eipWBe">&nbsp;› environment › 2018/10 › ton...</span></font></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.58; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="eipWBe" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div class="action-menu" style="display: inline; margin: 1px 3px 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=desmog+anthony+tony+cox&oq=desmog+anthony+tony+cox&aqs=chrome..69i57.7735j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b3" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQ7B0wA3oECAMQBA" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; display: inline-block; height: 12px; margin-top: 1px; user-select: none; width: 13px; cursor: pointer;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(112, 117, 122) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -3px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><ol class="action-menu-panel" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQqR8wA3oECAMQBQ" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 12px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px;"><li class="action-menu-item" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Tc2-tHxFuacJ:https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:Tc2-tHxFuacJ:https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/%2B%26cd%3D4%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDADegQIAxAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Tc2-tHxFuacJ:https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:Tc2-tHxFuacJ:https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/%2B%26cd%3D4%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDADegQIAxAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.58;">Oct 27, 2018 -&nbsp;</span>Tony Cox&nbsp;has made his living challenging established science on behalf of industry. ... In his half-hour presentation,&nbsp;Tony Cox, a risk analyst from Denver, claimed ... The sole medical voice on the panel is&nbsp;Dr. Mark Frampton,&nbsp;...</font></span></a><div class="TXwUJf"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Tc2-tHxFuacJ:https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:Tc2-tHxFuacJ:https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/tony-cox-trumps-air-pollution-adviser-clean-air-saves-no-lives/%2B%26cd%3D4%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDADegQIAxAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Missing:&nbsp;<s>desmog</s>&nbsp;‎| Must include:&nbsp;</font></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%22desmog%22+anthony+tony+cox&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQ5t4CMAN6BAgDEAk" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;">desmog</a></font></div><div class="TXwUJf"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div class="TXwUJf"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 28px;"><div class="rc" data-hveid="CAUQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFSgAMA56BAgFEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.58;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;" /></font><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.58; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><a href="https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;"><font color="#000000" /></a><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><a href="https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;" /><a href="https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;" /><a href="https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;" /><a href="https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;" /><a href="https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;" /><a href="https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;" /><a href="https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; cursor: pointer;"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;">www.nationofchange.org<span class="eipWBe">&nbsp;› 2020/07/01 › slam-dunk-st...</span></cite></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.58; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="eipWBe" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div class="action-menu" style="display: inline; margin: 1px 3px 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=desmog+anthony+tony+cox&oq=desmog+anthony+tony+cox&aqs=chrome..69i57.7735j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b14" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQ7B0wDnoECAUQBA" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; display: inline-block; height: 12px; margin-top: 1px; user-select: none; width: 13px; cursor: pointer;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(112, 117, 122) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -3px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><ol class="action-menu-panel" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQqR8wDnoECAUQBQ" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 12px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px;"><li class="action-menu-item" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:vl1wVUKlVI8J:https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:vl1wVUKlVI8J:https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDAOegQIBRAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:vl1wVUKlVI8J:https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:vl1wVUKlVI8J:https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDAOegQIBRAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;"><font color="#000000" /></a><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:vl1wVUKlVI8J:https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:vl1wVUKlVI8J:https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/07/01/slam-dunk-study-finds-trump-epas-move-not-to-tighten-air-pollution-standards-would-prematurely-kill-140000-americans/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDAOegQIBRAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.58;">Jul 1, 2020 -&nbsp;</span>Like Wheeler,&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Tony Cox, the current chair of CASAC, has ties to the fossil ... He told&nbsp;DeSmog&nbsp;he found the study and its conclusion “highly&nbsp;...</font></span></a></font></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style=""><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ROnQpLl0oEwJ:https://judithcurry.com/2019/08/14/the-latest-travesty-in-consensus-enforcement/+&cd=16&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:ROnQpLl0oEwJ:https://judithcurry.com/2019/08/14/the-latest-travesty-in-consensus-enforcement/%2B%26cd%3D16%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYe06_rqAhXkmq0KHfIdDaEQIDAPegQIBhAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="">==</font></a></font></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>