Earthjustice Condemns the New EPA’s Dismissal of Critical Science Advisory Boards

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fired all members of two key advisory panels, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) and Science Advisory Board (SAB), on January 28, resuming a bogus attack on scientific expertise and signaling a renewed attack on public health protections in favor of pro-polluter policies. The EPA gave no justification for their dismissal.

“This purge of independent science advisors is a blatant attack on the integrity of the EPA and a dangerous step toward sidelining science in favor of political agendas,” said Earthjustice Attorney Seth Johnson. “These scientists’ work confirms reality: air pollution kills people and harms the environment. Firing these scientists doesn’t change that reality.”

The CASAC and SAB provide key checks to ensure EPA policies are rooted in science, not politics. Congress created CASAC to ensure environmental policies are grounded in science and protect the public from dangerous air pollutants, like lead, ozone, and particulate matter. Similarly, the SAB ensures the EPA’s rules are science-driven by offering expert technical and scientific guidance on environmental issues.

This firing is entirely different from what the Biden administration did in 2021. In the first Trump administration, the EPA also dismissed CASAC and announced appointments to the body that broke with decades of precedent by excluding academics that received EPA grants. Multiple courts found these actions illegal and a departure from Congress’s goals. In 2021, the Biden administration acknowledged that courts had struck down aspects of the prior administration’s appointments policy, and that the prior administration’s approach departed from time-tested policies. Accordingly, it reset the panels, consistent with historical practice. The second Trump administration cannot and does not point to any such abuses here.