Follow-up to November 2008 Editor’s Column: Science and Politics
Michael F. Forlenza, P.G.
Editor, HGS Bulletin
The November 2008 HGS Bulletin included the Editor’s column, "Science and Politics," which discussed the sometimes contentious relationship between government policies and scientific research in the United States. The editorial described how critics have pointed to an especially strained relationship during the administration of George W. Bush. The editorial also presented the views of the presidential candidates in the November 2008 election and their plans to renew that relationship in the coming years.
The following two items pertaining to the issue of science and politics recently appeared in the news.
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The Endangered Species Act and the Conflict between Science and Policy
On December 15, 2008, the Inspector General of U. S. Department of the Interior, Earl E. Devaney, released a report of investigation titled "The Endangered Species Act and the Conflict between Science and Policy." The full report can be viewed on the website of the Department of the Interior Office of the Inspector General (www.doioig.gov/).The report describes the frequent interference with scientific work to give endangered species as little protection as possible. In examining 20 policy decisions regarding endangered species, the report cited serious flaws in the way the Interior Department reached 15 of them, and suggested that the new administration reconsider these decisions. Most of these decisions involved Julie A. MacDonald, who was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks in the department until 2007. Her "zeal to advance her agenda" did "considerable harm" both to the species and the department’s integrity, morale, and reputation, the report concluded.
The report was requested by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden to investigate 18 endangered species decisions undertaken by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) because he believed the decisions may have been improperly affected by Ms. MacDonald. Senator Wyden’s request was followed by a request from U.S. House of Representatives Chairman Nick J. Rahall, II, Committee on Natural Resources to examine "improper influence" in a decision. Further, in January 2008, Congressmen Jay Inslee and Peter DeFazio requested that the inspector general "investigate whether improper influence affected the decision" to not afford protection to the Washington population of the western gray squirrel under the ESA [Endangered Species Act]."
The inspector general conducted 89 interviews and reviewed more than 20,000 e-mails and other documents. The investigation revealed that Ms. MacDonald "potentially jeopardized the ESA decisional process" in 13 of 20 matters. The report also determined that former Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Craig Manson enabled her behavior and that she was occasionally aided and abetted by Special Assistant Randal Bowman, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks (ASFWP), and Attorney Thomas Graf, Office of the Solicitor (SOL).
The findings reaffirmed previous investigations by the inspector general which showed that Ms. MacDonald pursued her agenda by exerting political influence on the FWS Washington Office, regional offices, and field offices. She frequently contested the scientific findings of FWS biologists and often replaced their scientific conclusions with her own, even though she was not a biologist. Ms. MacDonald also acted as an economist – again without professional training – in her efforts to restrict critical habitat designations (CHD). In fact, her attempts to perform an analysis of the economic impact of one particular CHD resulted in "math errors" of "an order of magnitude" that led to the exclusion of critical habitat from the rule published in the Federal Register. According to FWS personnel, the agency spent approximately $100,000 to republish a corrected version of the rule.
The report indicated that Ms. MacDonald’s actions resulted in the untold waste of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in the form of unnecessary litigation costs defending lawsuits, as well as those costs associated with redoing ESA decisions mandated by the courts. Indeed, Ms. MacDonald’s attempts to manipulate science were noted by the federal courts. In its ruling overturning FWS’ greater sage grouse decision, the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho observed, "MacDonald’s principal tactic is to steer the ‘best science’ to a pre-ordained outcome …." The court concluded, "For that reason, MacDonald’s extensive involvement in the sage-grouse decision is an independent reason for the Court’s finding that the Director’s 12-Month Finding is arbitrary and capricious …."
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President-Elect Obama Selects Science Advisors
In an article in the December 21, 2008 New York Times, Gardner Harris reported that President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of four top scientific advisors signals what are likely to be significant changes in administrative policies governing global warming, ocean protections, and stem cell research. "It’s time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology," Mr. Obama said in a radio address when he announced the appointments of Jane Lubchenco, John P. Holdren, Harold Varmus, and Eric S. Lander.
Jane Lubchenco, a marine biologist from Oregon State University, will lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which overseas ocean and atmospheric studies and performs much of the government’s research on global warming.
John P. Holdren, a physicist and environmental policy professor at Harvard, will serve as the president’s primary science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology. Dr. Holdren will also be a co-chairman of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology along with the Nobel Prize-winning cancer researcher.
Dr. Harold Varmus, a former director of the National Institutes of Health, and Eric S. Lander, a genomic researcher. Dr. Varmus is president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Dr. Lander is a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and helped lead the effort to sequence the human genome.
Like Steven Chu, the energy secretary-designate, Drs. Holdren and Lubchenco advocate mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions, which the Bush administration opposed. Both served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Holdren said last year that the world needed to undertake "a massive effort to slow the pace of global climatic disruption before intolerable consequences become inevitable."