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Jane Lubchenco’s Legacy at NOAA

Cross-posted from Legal Planet.

NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco has announced that she will leave her post at the end of February. Her letter to NOAA employees, reprinted in the Washington Post, cites the difficulty of maintaining a bi-coastal family life. Dr. Lubchenco, a distinguished marine biologist, has put in four years at the helm of NOAA, as much time as reasonably could be expected.

She was one of President Obama’s earliest nominees, named before his inauguration as part of a “dream team” of distinguished research scientists he brought into high-level government service in partial fulfillment of his inaugural promise to restore science to its rightful place. While that promise remains, in my view, unfulfilled, it hasn’t been for lack of trying on Lubchenco’s part. Of NOAA’s accomplishments during her tenure, the one I attribute most directly to her influence is adoption of a strong scientific integrity policy. The White House mandated that federal agencies develop scientific integrity policies, but provided precious little guidance or leadership. Most agencies simply imported research misconduct policies, essentially putting the entire onus of ensuring scientific integrity in the regulatory arena on career scientific staff. As I’ve explained in some detail in this article, that approach misses the point. The so-called scientific integrity problem has a lot more to do with the relationship between political appointees and the career scientists they oversee than with deliberate falsification by those scientists. If you don’t believe that, take a quick look at the Department of Interior Inspector General’s reports on the Julie MacDonald affair, here and here. NOAA’s policy, alone among those I’ve looked at, takes on that relationship. It includes a “Code of Ethics for Science Supervision and Management” which, among other things, expressly forbids intimidating employees into altering or censoring scientific findings. You wouldn’t think that was necessary, but look again at the MacDonald report. Then ask yourself why the Department of Interior hasn’t put even that minimal limit on managers in its scientific integrity policy.

Of course there’s room for more development of the responsibilities of agency scientists and political appointees than the initial NOAA scientific integrity policy provides. And of course NOAA under Lubchenco hasn’t always been able to fulfill its aspirations of providing transparent disclosure of scientific data and their uncertainties. NOAA apparently got rolled by the White House, for example, in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and did not publicly object either to low-ball early estimates of the flow from the ruptured well or later to the White House’s assertion that three-quarters of the spilled oil, including oil that had dispersed into the water column, was “gone.” But under Dr. Lubchenco’s direction, NOAA has recognized the policy side of the science/policy problem and has set its aspirations for solving that problem high. That in itself is a substantial accomplishment.

The nation has been lucky to have Dr. Lubchenco’s service as NOAA administrator for the past four years. She will surely continue to serve the nation, as a scientist and an advocate for scientifically-informed policy, from outside the administration. Let’s hope President Obama can find someone as committed and as capable to follow her at NOAA.

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Holly Doremus | December 14, 2012

Jane Lubchenco’s Legacy at NOAA

Cross-posted from Legal Planet. NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco has announced that she will leave her post at the end of February. Her letter to NOAA employees, reprinted in the Washington Post, cites the difficulty of maintaining a bi-coastal family life. Dr. Lubchenco, a distinguished marine biologist, has put in four years at the helm of […]

Daniel Farber | December 13, 2012

Mayans! Apocalypse! Climate Change!

Cross-posted from Legal Planet. Mayan apocalypse: panic spreads as December 21 nears Fears that the end of the world is nigh have spread across the world with only days until the end of the Mayan calendar, with doomsday-mongers predicting a cataclysmic end to the history of Earth. That’s from a British newspaper, the Telegraph, but […]

Rena Steinzor | December 10, 2012

Moving Forward on Public Health and Safety with Just the Stroke of the Pen? Yes, Obama Can

After the last of the applause lines has been delivered, and while the crowd that gathered for his historic second inauguration is still filing out of town, President Obama will once again sit at his desk in the Oval Office and begin the tough policy work that will define his second term in office and […]

Elizabeth Grossman | December 7, 2012

An Incident Almost Every Day: Louisiana Bucket Brigade Reports on 2011 Refinery Accidents

Cross-posted from The Pump Handle. The good news is that in 2011 there were 53 fewer reported refinery accidents in Louisiana than there were in 2010. The bad news is that the 301 refinery accidents reported to the state in 2011 released nearly 50,000 pounds more air pollutants and nearly 1 million gallons more contaminants […]

Thomas McGarity | December 5, 2012

FDA’s Excuses to Court on Food Safety Rule Delays Are Unconvincing

The saga of the missing FDA food safety regulations continues with a new government filing in a lawsuit challenging FDA’s failure to promulgate regulations implementing three critical programs that Congress established in the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011.  As I noted in a previous posting, the three sets of regulations are currently bottled up […]

David Hunter | December 4, 2012

World Bank Risks Weakening Environmental and Social Standards

The World Bank has started a process that appears likely to weaken its environmental and social safeguard policies.  Although the Bank has repeatedly stated there will be no “dilution” of the policies, the Bank’s scoping paper released in October and its ongoing consultations clearly reveal a desire to replace clear standards with discretion and deference […]

Robert Verchick | December 3, 2012

A Conversation about the Public Trust in India: Public Participation, Climate Adaptation, and India’s 2G Network

Property lawyers in the United States love the Public Trust Doctrine (PTD). There’s such a rich history. The doctrine, which holds that important resources must be held “in trust” for public use, originated in Roman law. Centuries later it was forced on King John through the Magna Carta. During America’s industrial revolution, our Supreme Court […]

Holly Doremus | November 30, 2012

What to Expect in the Logging Roads Case

Cross-posted from Legal Planet. This coming Monday, Dec. 3, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the logging roads case. The case involves two consolidated petitions, Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center and Georgia Pacific v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center , both challenging the same decision of the Ninth Circuit, Northwest Environmental Defense […]

Holly Doremus | November 29, 2012

Should We Revive an Extinct Galapagos Tortoise?

Cross-posted from Legal Planet. The Washington Post reported this week that scientists think they can resurrect the Pinta Island subspecies of Galapagos tortoise whose last remaining member, “Lonesome George,” died this summer. Scientists at Ecuador’s Galapagos National Park say they have found enough Pinta Island genetic material in tortoise on another nearby island that an […]