Marchant talk blogged by `Times’

04/03/2008

Marchant talk blogged by `Times' 
Gary Marchant 
Professor Gary Marchant
     Professor Gary Marchant, executive director of the Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, met with other scholars recently at New York University School of Law for a conference, "Breaking the Logjam."
     The meeting, which was blogged by John Tierney, a science columnist at the New York Times, focused on convincing the federal government to promote, not discourage, local innovation to deal with climate change and other problems.
     Tierney quoted Marchant, co-author of a paper that said regulatory agencies tend to engage in a "science charade" in justifying decisions based in politics. Marchant and Angus MacBeth, an environmental lawyer in Washington, D.C., and former EPA lawyer, proposed the creation of an independent agency that would report what science does and does not say about a particular problem. This Institute for Science Assessments would offer impartial guidance to regulatory agencies.
     "A document from the Institute of Science Assessments, stating what science does and does not answer, would force the regulatory agency to more expressly and honestly disclose the policy and normative bases for its decision," Marchant's report stated.
     Read the entire blog at tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/. 
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