Editorial: Low regard for science

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2005 | 9:15 a.m.

Last weekend some of the nation's top scientists gathered in Washington for the annual meeting of the American Association for Advancement of Science. The Associated Press reported that those attending the conference were concerned that scientists in federal agencies were being ignored or even pressured to change their conclusions about issues to conform to administration policy.

The White House's response? "The president makes policy decisions based on what the best policies for the country are, not politics. People who suggest otherwise are ill-informed," Bush aide Ken Lisaius said. But the reality clearly is otherwise. On a host of issues, including the Bush administration's plans to bury nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, the Bush White House and Cabinet officials have disregarded science in setting policy that often benefits industry. A federal appeals court provided further confirmation of this last year on Yucca Mountain when it ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency's current radiation standard for a nuclear waste dump wasn't strict enough to meet the standards set by the National Academy of Sciences. Although the nuclear power industry ardently wants a dump built, the court's decision has effectively stalled work at Yucca Mountain.

But don't think for a moment that the Bush administration will sit back and let a court ruling get in its way of Yucca Mountain. The Sun reported Wednesday that the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have been meeting quietly to talk about ways that the EPA could comply with the court ruling. But the talks pointedly have not included any representatives from Nevada -- despite the fact that 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste would be buried in our state forever. It would appear that the EPA is being pressured by two federal agencies that have cozy relationships with the nuclear power industry -- the Energy Department, which will seek a license to build the dump, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has the final say on the application -- to do their bidding and that of the industry in ge tting a dump built.

The first four years of Bush's term were disastrous for science and the environment -- and we haven't seen any indication yet that will change in the next four years.