War on Facts (Holy Week Edition)

I'm back from a hiatus, as you may have noticed. This semester is especially hectic. The only thing that I know of that's worse than lots of committee meetings is stripping lots of old wallpaper off the walls, and I've been doing both.

Meanwhile, the War on Facts continues:

When the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a rule last week to limit mercury emissions from U.S. power plants, officials emphasized that the controls could not be more aggressive because the cost to industry already far exceeded the public health payoff.

What they did not reveal is that a Harvard University study paid for by the EPA, co-authored by an EPA scientist and peer-reviewed by two other EPA scientists had reached the opposite conclusion.

That analysis estimated health benefits 100 times as great as the EPA did, but top agency officials ordered the finding stripped from public documents, said a staff member who helped develop the rule. Acknowledging the Harvard study would have forced the agency to consider more stringent controls, said environmentalists and the study's author.