The Union of Concerned Scientists says the explicit written policies Obama promised last year are crucial to ensure scientific integrity in government. (Photo courtesy of Planar Energy Devices, Inc.)
President Barack Obama promised to protect scientific research from politics. He wanted guidelines in four months. It’s been a year now and still there are no guidelines. Shawn Allee reports:
Transcript
President Barack Obama promised to protect scientific research from politics.
He wanted guidelines in four months.
But Shawn Allee reports, it’s been a year now and still there are no guidelines.
Francesca Grifo tracks the issue of scientific integrity for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group.
She says the issue can be a matter of life and death.
Grifo has lots of examples.
“Basic things like the way the Clean Air Act is implemented, the way we look at drugs before we put them out for the public, all of these big, government processes that we don’t pay a lot of attention to, if we don’t have them be transparent, we end up with inappropriate influence on those decisions.”
Grifo says Obama has improved the situation at some agencies, but he should finish explicit, written policies on things like protecting scientists who become whistle-blowers.
That way the next president has high standards, too.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy did not return calls for comment.
For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.