Energy & Environment

EPA appoints industry players and academics to its Science Advisory Board

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by Rachel Frazin - 04/17/26 5:30 PM ET

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by Rachel Frazin - 04/17/26 5:30 PM ET

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would appoint academics and players in chemical and other industries and additional scientists to its Science Advisory Board (SAB).

The new appointments come more than a year after the administration “reset” the board, dismissing the scientists who were on it.

The board is made up of outside scientists who provide scientific advice to the EPA administrator. This includes reviewing the scientific information that underlies regulations and scrutinizing the agency’s research programs.

Several of the board’s 37 total members come from the chemical industry, with an employee of Dow Chemical, an employee of Corteva Agriscience and two employees of Chemours among those selected. Chemours spun off from DuPont in 2015 and took on its “forever chemicals” portfolio.

ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences is also represented on the board.

Also appointed was Louis Anthony “Tony” Cox, who led the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee under the first Trump administration and who has reportedly denied the links between pollution and heart and lung issues.

On the academic side, represented universities include: the University of Wisconsin; Columbia University; University of Notre Dame; Ohio State University; Cornell University; Yale University; University of Missouri; University of California, Irvine; University of Nevada, Reno; Clemson University; University of Idaho; University of Florida; University of Michigan; Northwestern University; University of Massachusetts-Amherst; and University of Texas, Houston.

The SAB will be chaired by Charles Bott, of the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, which treats wastewater in Virginia.

In a press release, the EPA described the panel as bringing the necessary expertise to the agency.

“Reconstituting the Science Advisory Board will provide rigorous, independent, evidence-based, scientific advice consistent with its legal obligations to advance our core mission of protecting human health and the environment,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a written statement.

In recent administrations, the makeup of the board has ping-ponged depending on who was in charge.

In 2021, the Biden administration disbanded and reconstituted the board, purging most of its Trump-era appointees.

David Dzombak, who served in various SAB roles between 2001 and 2016, said that the people he knows on the list of appointees have “very strong credentials” and that overall it looks like the EPA has chosen “a broad list of experienced professionals.”

“They’ve always worked to get diverse representation,” said Dzombak, a professor emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University. “If you see a representative from a particular company on there that … raises questions about potential conflicts, but there are well established procedures for managing conflicts.”

However, Emily Donovan, an activist whose North Carolina community is downstream from a Chemours facility and has faced significant pollution, called the appointment of scientists from that company a “slap in the face.”

“It’s absolutely disrespectful to every American who cares about safe drinking water, safe environment, [and a] healthy environment for families,” Donovan told The Hill. “I don’t think that … EPA is going to get good, fair, sound, independent science.”

Updated at 5:42 p.m. EDT

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