Why can't those obstreperous scientists just get with the (approved) program?

Last week, while all the furor was around the Baker Commission Report, the Environmental Protection (*cough*) Agency took advantage of the cover provided by the events surrounding the release of the report in question to quietly announce that they had changed the procedures it has used for 25 years to set standards for air pollutants like soot and lead. The EPA says the new procedures will "streamline" the process.

BAH!

Turn it upside down and backwards maybe, but streamline? Well...sure...I guess...but not in a good way.

This new way of doing things will have the additional effect of decreasing the role of science in policy making while increasing the influence of the agency’s political appointees. (emphasis mine)

Here is how the process worked for 25 years, with no problems and no political gamesmanship:

Every five years the EPA was supposed to review the current literature and research, and update their guidelines on exposure levels of six major air pollutants. Two groups of scientists were tapped for this process: internal staff scientists conducted a survey and outside independent scientists conducted one. The two groups got together and compared notes and issued new guidelines based on their collaborated and substantiated findings.

But we have a new "process" that will be followed now: Now staff scientists and political appointees will conduct the initial reviews to develop an overview of policy relevant science. (emhasis mine)

This sounds suspiciously to me like they are focusing on predetermined outcomes. Independent scientists, meanwhile, stand to be frozen out of the process until the very end. When they are finally allowed to comment, the preordained proposals will have already generated considerable momentum. If you want to be a working scientist, your job will no longer be to seek truth. Instead it will be to "prove" that predetermined notions are "correct" and the only "debate" the EPA will engage in will be with itself.