Half Of EPA Scientific Advisory Board Dismissed From Second Term

Half the members of one of the EPA's key advisory boards are being replaced by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

As many as nine of the 18 experts on the Board of Scientific Counselors, which examines and ensures best practices by the agency's scientists, have been dismissed from holding a second three-year term.

One of those scientists was Robert Richardson, an ecological economist at Michigan State University who tweeted over the weekend, "Today, I was Trumped." He added he had never heard of someone not receiving two consecutive terms.

EPA spokesman J.P. Freire told the Washington Post, "This approach is what was always intended for the board, and we’re making a clean break with the last administration’s approach."

However critics, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, have called the move part of a "full-on assault ... to strip away the independence of advisory committees at several government agencies."

Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund and member of the EPA's chartered Science Advisory Board.

Gretchen Goldman, research director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She tweets @gretchentg.