In a memorandum (PDF) dated August 7, 2018, NCSE's executive director Ann Reid wrote to oppose the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rule "Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science" and to urge the EPA to withdraw its proposal. The controversial rule is, as Naomi Oreskes (a member of NCSE's board of directors) explained in the journal Nature, widely seen as attempting to keep "high-quality evidence from being used to shape regulations, even if there are legitimate reasons, such as patient privacy, why some data cannot be made public."
In NCSE's memorandum, Reid observed, "The proposed rule would not directly influence curriculum and instruction in the nation's public schools, but it would, if adopted, risk undercutting the hard work that science teachers do to give the next generation a clear understanding of how scientific evidence is properly used to guide sound public health and environmental quality decisions. The future citizens who will soon be responsible for making informed decisions about our environment deserve better." The comment period on the rule ends on August 16, 2018.