WASHINGTON -- Heritage senior research fellow Daren Bakst released the following response Tuesday to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) finalization of a new science rule that will be critical to increasing transparency at the agency: 

"Today is a victory for transparency and open government. The EPA finalized a rule that will provide the public and outside scientific experts better access to the science informing the agency’s significant regulations.

 

"For decades, there has been a bipartisan push for greater transparency in the use of science in agency rule-making. In 2009, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum stressing that the public must be able to trust the scientific process informing policy decisions. To its credit, the EPA, through this new rule, is taking an important step in realizing this critical objective.

 

"Inevitably, many of the rule’s opponents will continue to disseminate misleading information. The reality is they are opposing both greater transparency and the EPA using the best available science. Hopefully, the truth and details about this important rule will get its much-deserved spotlight. Because, through this final rule, the EPA has improved scientific integrity and the regulatory process."