• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a long awaited memorandum on December 17th. Agency Director John P. Holden said the 4-page memo, “describes the minimum standards expected as departments and agencies craft scientific integrity rules appropriate for their particular missions and cultures.” The memo specifically prohibits “political interference in scientific processes”. Under President Bush the Federal Government was at times found guilty of promoting scientific research that supported its political agenda. The Obama Administration has promised to increase transparency and raise the standards of scientific integrity. But the current White House has already been accused of playing politics with science. There is evidence that in the aftermath of the summer’s BP Oil Spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, scientific findings that contradicted official messaging were ignored or suppressed. It is against this backdrop that advocates for greater scientific integrity standards have criticized White House memo for lacking teeth and a sense of urgency. James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, became a whistleblower when the Bush administrations censored his work. Hansen said the memo did not address the problem of appointing non-scientists to head scientific departments. The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility criticized the new guidelines for failing to address some key issues, and for creating new problems. Among PEER’s concerns: the guidelines do not protect whistleblowers; they don’t require public notice when alterations to scientific papers are made by non-scientists; and the vague language seems to put scientists at the mercy of public affairs departments before they can speak to the media.

GUEST: Jeff Ruch, Executive Director, at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

Find out www.peer.org.