Union of Concerned Scientists v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1st Cir. No. 19-1383)
On July 25, 2019, the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic filed an amicus brief on behalf of former officials in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies who are concerned that EPA’s directive to prohibit recipients of its grants from serving on EPA’s science advisory committees will weaken the agency’s ability to protect human health and the environment. The Clinic’s brief explains that scientists who receive EPA grants provide valuable and highly relevant scientific expertise to the agency, and barring them from the science advisory committees would impair EPA’s ability to base its decisions on the “best available science.”