New EPA rules force Kling, Helmers off advisory committee

January 29, 2018
News

Catherine Kling, Matthew HelmersCatherine Kling, professor and director of CARD, and Matthew Helmers, professor of agricultural & biosystems engineering, became the latest scientists to be dismissed from an Environmental Protection Agency committee, months after the federal agency announced new rules for those serving on its advisory panels. The two Iowa State professors were asked to leave an advisory subcommittee of the EPA's Science Advisory Board as reported in a January 24, 2018 Ames Tribune story.

“It’s not this specific committee, and it’s not me, specifically,” Kling said. “There are many good environmental economists who could serve on these committees. It’s not about either of those things. It’s about what appears, to me, to be a very arbitrary rule, and an argument about conflict of interest that is simply illogical when you’re using it to keep academics off advisory committees and promote industry employees.”

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