Story highlights Christine Todd Whitman: EPA administrator's decision not to renew the appointments of nine scientific advisors shows a move away from science as the backbone of the EPA and other key federal agencies

Trump administration's apparent disdain for science threatens to drain talent from the US, turn it into a backwater nation, she writes

Christine Todd Whitman is the president of The Whitman Strategy Group (WSG), a consulting firm that specializes in energy and environmental issues. She is the former Governor of New Jersey and former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under George W. Bush. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

(CNN) On Monday, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt declined to renew the terms of nine of the 18 scientists on the EPA's Board of Scientific Counselors. According to an EPA spokesperson, this change was made in order to bring different scientists into the mix, including industry ones.

Christine Todd Whitman

This dismissal, which is unprecedented in recent presidential history, represents yet another data point in the Trump Administration's trend away from science as the backbone of the EPA and other key federal agencies. It is appropriate to have one representative from industry on the panel that reviews the EPA's work -- after all, those industry researchers know best how they will be affected by particular regulations.

But the remainder of the board should be made up of research scientists who understand the effects of chemicals and whose primary concern is ensuring standards that will not harm human health and the environment. Ongoing research and development cannot be dominated by those who have an economic interest in the outcome.

The dismissals are particularly troubling since they are one of a number of developments in an administration which appears to take a diminished view of science.

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President Trump has not yet filled nearly fifty key science and technology positions throughout the federal government. While Obama also did not fill these posts immediately, Trump's pace is far slower than his predecessor. His administration has also proposed sharp cuts to science programs and the agencies that depend on them .

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