Ugh, this guy is communicating for the EPA

In a pattern that has become too familiar too fast, Trump’s appointment for transition EPA Communications Director is uniquely unqualified to speak on behalf of an agency whose core mission is to protect human health and the environment. And, we want him to resign.

As a Washington state senator, Doug Ericksen has spent eight years standing in the way of protecting human health and the environment. He:

• Removed references to climate change science from the bill creating Washington’s climate change action plan;
• Voted against legislation banning toxic chemicals in children’s toys and furniture;
• Blocked legislation to regulate oil trains just one year after an oil train in Quebec killed 47 people;
• Accepted so many gifts, trips and meals from lobbyists that his colleagues in the legislature were forced to pass tighter lobbyist ethics rules.

His first act at the EPA was to publicly announce that any science being published by the EPA will undergo “an unspecified internal vetting process”. That means Trump will decide what science gets published and what gets suppressed.

What Ericksen didn’t mention is that this directive violates the agency’s Scientific Integrity Policy. When dealing with science, it’s the responsibility of every EPA employee to conduct, utilize, and communicate science with honesty, integrity, and transparency.

Environmental laws shouldn’t be based on alternative facts, or be up to Trump’s whim or bias. This is exactly the kind of political meddling in the scientific process that the EPA policy prohibits.

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