Eighteen AGs Filed Petition for Review of EPA’s Restrictions on Use of Scientific Studies and Evidence

New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 18 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) restrictions on the use of certain kinds of scientific studies and evidence in rulemakings and other agency processes. In their complaint, the AGs emphasized that the administration “did not and cannot identify a valid statutory basis” for the restrictions, and warned that the rule “deliberately and arbitrarily requires EPA to give less weight to relevant, peer-reviewed, and probative science,” undermining the agency’s “clear congressional mandates to use the best available science to protect public health and the environment.” The AGs also emphasized that the Trump administration’s justification for the rule has been thoroughly discredited by the scientific community, which has “made clear that existing, well-established peer-review mechanisms already ensure that underlying research data are scientifically sound, and that the public availability of such data has no bearing on the validity of scientific studies.”