Good news....Bad news....

Both from EOS. The good news is the new NASA media policy
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NASA scientists will be able to speak freely about their work to the media and the public, under a newly revised policy announced 30 March by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin......

The policy is intended to establish a ‘culture of openness,’ in which scientists may communicate the results and conclusions of their scientific research to the public without hindrance. However, NASA scientists will be required to distinguish personal views from those of the agency. The revised policy also outlines the responsibilities of the public affairs staff, who will be prohibited from altering or editing scientific information.

The proof, of course being in the eating.

Bad news....

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not investing enough money in the science needed for the agency to make sound environmental policy decisions, according to several witnesses who testified before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on 16 March....

EPA has proposed cutting funding in a number of areas, including research about mercury, ecology and ecosystems, global change, and sustainability. Meanwhile, the agency would spend more money on homeland security issues......

Jeffrey Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER, a non-profit organization seeking to uphold environmental laws), said that unlike the situations with NASA and NOAA, the most frequent complaint about EPA is that the agency keeps research locked in draft reports so that it can never be used in decision-making. For example, a report on dioxins has been in draft form for 12 years. EPA’s Gray said that reports such as the
one on dioxins were kept in draft form for so long because of the agency’s “rigorous peer review process” and that “it takes time to get science right.”

Ruch also noted that, in contrast with recent ‘open science’ policies announced by NOAA and NASA, EPA has reiterated its policy of requiring scientists to get prior approval for all communications with the media. Ruch said, “Until EPA offers its scientists some meaningful protection for discussing emerging issues or reporting findings without prior political vetting, the agency’s entire science program will be tainted in the eyes of both the scientific community and the general public.”