Glass house of the day: Former EPA chief Reilly hits GOP on science

By Steve Milloy

I would like to thank Steve for allowing me to republish his works. RK

Former Republican EPA administrator Bill Reilly will lash out at Congressional Republicans today, saying “Science has left the building.” But he has no room to throw stones.

Politico reports,

Former EPA Administrator Bill Reilly will point a finger at fellow Republicans for not believing in the science underpinning EPA climate change and other rules in a speech Tuesday.

President George H.W. Bush’s agency chief will also defend officials at his former stomping ground for pursuing what the GOP and some Democrats have deemed an unnecessarily aggressive agenda. He is set to give the keynote speech at a symposium hosted by Texas A&M University’s George Bush School of Government and Public Service regarding the bipartisanship that went into the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act.

“For some of the most prominent leaders of the Republican Party, science has left the building,” Reilly said in prepared remarks he will give Tuesday. “It scarcely features.

“Science doesn’t feature prominently in these debates,” Reilly adds. “Republicans once were the party of science where environmental policy was concerned.”

He will also defend the work by current EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and her crew.

“To some it may appear that the agency is choosing the wrong moment, with the economy hurting and millions unemployed, but most of the costly rules are not on an EPA-controlled schedule,” Reilly said. While noting that the timetable is structured at least in part around settlements tied to various court challenges, Reilly said, “These rules are grounded in the best available science, and what’s more, given the priority we all hold for the economy, they will result in job creation as companies acquire and install pollution controls.”

Ironically, science was never in the building when Reilly was EPA administrator — and the EPA’s Science Advisory Board said so at the time.

In a March 1992 report by a blue ribbon panel of the SAB, “Safeguarding the Future: Credible Science, Credible Decisions“, the agency was warned not to adjust science to fit policy.

Don’t forget that Reilly is also chairman emeritus of the radical green World Wildlife Fund. He is the quintessential RINO.

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