Political Tampering with science advisory boards is a bad idea

Check out my new op-ed in the Raleigh News and Observer.  I am a board member of the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) sub-committee on Sustainable and Healthy Communities (SHC), a branch of the EPA’s Office of Research and Development that does unbelievably valuable work trying to bring better information, science, and technology to American communities and to the public.  I was selected because I do strong work in this area.  Now, appointments to these boards are expiring, with re-appointments either non-existent (eliminating the board) or requiring a political test (being a member of an EPA regulated industry or being friendly to the administration).  This is not how science or scientific advisory should operate, anywhere on the political spectrum.