Cases

In a forceful letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, scientists challenged a policy restricting the use of recently discovered genetic data in reviewing the status of endangered species.

G.W. Bush's Executive Order (EO) 13422 of 2007 injects political appointees into agency rule-making, cripples an agency's ability to issue guidance to public, and promotes free market concerns over public welfare.

A high-profile appointment of a scientist with questionable credentials is the selection of Dr. Joseph McIlhaney to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

On scientific and medical issues, from childhood lead poisoning to reproductive health to toxic mercury pollution, federal government science is being manipulated, distorted, and suppressed at an unprecedented scale.

In 2004 the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) exaggerated the impact of forest fires on spotted owl habitat in an attempt to expand old-growth logging in the Sierra Nevada. 

In September 2005, NOAA scientist Dr. Pieter Tans was asked to cancel a conference session on energy use and the carbon cycle due to policy implications and was told that the words “climate change” could not appear in the titles of any presentations.

In February 2006, the phrase “to understand and protect the home planet” was removed from the NASA’s official mission statement. Scientists worried the change meant funding would be shifted away from studies of Earth, including climate change research.

A major study of climate change’s potential consequences for the United States was erased from official government climate science and policy discussions.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) agreed to a politician’s request to insert a pro-abstinence speaker on a panel discussion at the 2006 National STD Prevention Conference in Jacksonville, Fla.

Several EPA scientists challenged the methodology and questioned the impartiality of the expert panel that reviewed findings of a 2004 EPA study concluding that hydraulic fracturing “poses little or no threat” to drinking water supplies.

The GW Bush administration sought to undermine the public’s understanding of the view held by the vast majority of climate scientists that human-caused emissions of heat-trapping gases are making a clear contribution to global warming.

Engineer William E. Howard III reported in a letter to Science that his nomination to a Defense Dept. advisory panel was rejected because he had contributed Senator John McCain (R-AZ) presidential campaign.