--- description: The three had been due to speak about the impact of climate change on New England's largest estuary. title: EPA Pulls Scientists from Climate Change Conference image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd95a387e2147b1d9/6988e2e7196cf4e0d30426e6/gettyimages-654199026.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) ## Science Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [climate change](/tag/climate-change/) ## climate change Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The EPA Has Pulled Its Scientists from a Climate Change Conference by [Laignee Barron](/author/laignee-barron/) ## Laignee Barron Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 23, 2017 6:28 AM CUT  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) logo is displayed on a door at its headquarters on March 16, 2017 in Washington, DC. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) logo is displayed on a door at its headquarters on March 16, 2017 in Washington, DC.Justin Sullivan—Getty Images by [Laignee Barron](/author/laignee-barron/) ## Laignee Barron Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 23, 2017 6:28 AM CUT The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has pulled three of its scientists from a major conference on Monday, where they were set to speak about the impacts of climate change on New England’s largest estuary, the New York _Times_ [reports](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/22/climate/epa-scientists.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience "undefined"). The last-minute cancellation is raising alarms about attempts to stifle discussion on climate change at the federal regulating body, the _Times_ says. The EPA did not provide a rationale for the change of plans. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, nominated to the position by President Donald Trump, has been a [vocal denier](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/us/politics/scott-pruitt-epa-trump.html "undefined") of the scientific consensus that human-made greenhouse gases are a primary driving force of global warming. “It’s definitely a blatant example of the scientific censorship we all suspected was going to start being enforced at EPA,” John King, a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, told the _Times_. King chairs the science advisory committee of the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, which is hosting the conference at which the EPA scientists are no longer speaking. One of those scientists, ecologist Autumn Oczkowski, was scheduled to deliver the conference’s keynote address. Rose Martin, a postdoctoral fellow from the same EPA laboratory as Oczkowski, and EPA consultant Emily Shumchenia, were slated for an afternoon panel on “The Present and Future Biological Implications of Climate Change.” All three scientists had heavily contributed to a 400-page report to be launched on Monday, according to the _Times_. The move comes just days after the EPA made changes to one of its websites. Dozens of mentions of climate change have been scrubbed, and pages detailing the risks of global warming were either toned down or wholly removed, according to the [_Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/climate/epa-climate-change.html?ribbon-ad-idx=5&rref=climate "undefined"). The website itself has been renamed from “Climate and Energy Resources for State, Local and Tribal Governments” to “Energy Resources for State, Local and Tribal Governments.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4992818/e-p-a-bars-scientists-from-climate-change-event/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4992818/e-p-a-bars-scientists-from-climate-change-event/"},"headline":"The EPA Has Pulled Its Scientists from a Climate Change Conference","datePublished":"2017-10-23T06:28:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:57:24.077Z","description":"One of the scientists was scheduled to deliver the conference's keynote address","url":"https://time.com/4992818/e-p-a-bars-scientists-from-climate-change-event/","keywords":["climate change","Environment","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd95a387e2147b1d9/6988e2e7196cf4e0d30426e6/gettyimages-654199026.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laignee Barron","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laignee-barron/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd95a387e2147b1d9/6988e2e7196cf4e0d30426e6/gettyimages-654199026.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump's Budget Calls For Major Cuts To EPA","caption":"President Trump's Budget Calls For Major Cuts To EPA","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4992818/e-p-a-bars-scientists-from-climate-change-event/","name":"The EPA Has Pulled Its Scientists from a Climate Change Conference"}}]}] ```