I share Wendy’s concerns but also believe that there is room for optimism, although on different grounds than Rena and John. Much of the debate over the use of science to support regulation of public health and the environment has focused on the most challenging contexts. Toxics regulation, as we all know, rests on relatively weak science that is shot through with difficult judgment calls, making the “science” particularly vulnerable to manipulation. At the same time, a great deal of money is often at stake for those entities subject to regulation, which tends to super-charge interest group tactics and pressure on federal agencies. In their recent book “Bending Science,” Wendy and Tom McGarity describe the many modes of manipulation in all their disturbing glory. One source of hope that I have found is areas of regulation for which the stakes are lower and the science more solid. In these settings innovative approaches may emerge more readily. One area that seems to have significant promise is ecological monitoring and conservation. Several organizations have evolved to fill gaps in government programs and the existing science. NatureServe, for example, is a partnership of environmental non-profits (the Nature Conservancy), governmental agencies (U.S. Geological Service and Parks Service), private sector organizations (Sustainable Forest Initiative), and international agencies (IUCN) that provides “the scientific basis for effective conservation action.” Its work is highly regarded by a wide range of stakeholders. Similarly, the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) runs a very effective environmental monitoring program. Founded in 1986, SFEI works on a range issues impacting the San Francisco Bay, including point and non-point sources of pollution, invasive species, and wetlands protection. Its Regional Monitoring Program is notable for receiving most of its funding from a fee paid by Bay Area point-sources. SFEI’s distinctive funding model is also reflected in its governing committees, which include members from regulated industries, government agencies, local governments, the scientific community, and environmental groups. SFEI has proven relatively immune to the inefficiencies and inertia often associated with government agencies and the volatile politics that surround them. Further, by maintaining highly transparent processes, it has avoided perceptions of bias ascribed to private entities and retained a focus on concrete problems that university science often lacks. Indeed, its work seems to be strengthened by the capacity SFEI has to draw on knowledge and experience in the public and private sectors. I am not certain how generalizable these examples are, but they provide intriguing institutional models – the hybrid public-private institutional links are particularly interesting. Also in this vein, I wonder whether there isn’t something significant in the capacity of SFEI, in particular, to create an institutional bridge between government agencies, the private sector (both profit and non-profit), and universities.
Showing 2,829 results
David Adelman | August 25, 2008
I share Wendy’s concerns but also believe that there is room for optimism, although on different grounds than Rena and John. Much of the debate over the use of science to support regulation of public health and the environment has focused on the most challenging contexts. Toxics regulation, as we all know, rests on relatively […]
| August 25, 2008
Wendy asks a fair question: if I may rephrase, “If not science, then what?” Of course, this rephrasing is a little hyperbolic. No one suggests that there is no place for science. Indeed, as I mentioned before, it is the foundation of our concerns and provides essential (if limited and often uncertain) information about the […]
Wendy Wagner | August 23, 2008
As the moderator of this blog, I am the designated devil’s advocate. Read together, Rena’s and John’s entries make my assignment easy. Both write upbeat and insightful entries about their preferred approaches for the future, but they reach diametrically opposite conclusions. John suggests that the best solution for the manipulation of regulatory science is to […]
| August 21, 2008
Reading Wendy’s rather gloomy assessment of the abuse of science in regulatory decisionmaking – which is to say, in political decisions – and Rena’s more upbeat reply, I find myself asking why we are so tied to science in the first place. If the science is so subject to bias and abuse, why are we relying […]
Rena Steinzor | August 19, 2008
I think Wendy paints far too black a picture of the current state of affairs, and that rays of sunshine are beginning to poke through this particularly cloudy sky. I rest my case for more optimism on the increasingly aggressive role that scientific advisory boards are playing when political appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency […]
Wendy Wagner | August 18, 2008
One can quickly become depressed by the problems afflicting the science used for regulation of public health and the environment, and CPR bears a substantial share of responsibility for painting a grim picture of a world where politics prevails over science. In a Cambridge-published book, Rescuing Science from Politics, and an accompanying white paper that summarizes […]
William Funk | August 7, 2008
There are three relevant actors in the preemption play: the courts, the executive, and the Congress. For various reasons, the mood of the Supreme Court at the present time is to limit tort actions generally. “Tort reform,” generally unsuccessful in state legislatures and Congress, is being implemented by the Supreme Court unilaterally. Daubert requirements for […]
Nina Mendelson | July 31, 2008
There are two issues kicking around in this discussion: (1) Should state tort law be preempted if there is some sort of federal regulation in place? (2) Which institutions – particularly federal agencies and courts – are legally empowered and/or competent to decide that question? I’d like to chime in on (1), but I hope we’ll […]
Sidney A. Shapiro | July 30, 2008
I’m glad that we have an opportunity to blog about preemption because, as the previous blogs discussed, the folks pushing preemption are so good at creating myths around this subject. One—elaborated on by Tom McGarity—is that the jury system is not to be trusted. Another—discussed by David Vladeck—is that it is up to the courts to decide whether […]