"When EPA Administrator Michael Regan fired every member of two science advisory panels in March, he was trying to send an unequivocal message: It's a new day for scientific integrity.
It was a hardball maneuver by EPA's new chief, who came to the job with a national reputation for his work forging consensus as a regulator in North Carolina. He had just taken over a federal agency where career scientists and civil servants felt diminished and attacked under the Trump administration.
In remarks to EPA employees after he was sworn in last month, Regan promised to "restore the role of science and transparency" at the agency. From where he sat, that could only begin with a clean slate of independent science advisers.
But what was heralded by Regan's champions and science boosters as a bold reset for EPA has unsettled Republicans since he won bipartisan Senate confirmation to the post."
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