You cannot have a competent government if you don’t get rock solid scientific advice, and that starts with the fed’s scientific advisory panels. At the moment, the Republicans have political and ideological reasons for rejecting the scientific consensus on a host of issues, so during the Trump administration they manipulated things so that these panels were skewed toward industrial interests rather than dispassionate expertise. One simple way they did this was to make anyone who received a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency ineligible to serve on a board, the pretense being that they’d have a conflict of interest. The effect was to weed out people who know what they’re talking about on climate and pollution. Eventually, a federal court said this practice is illegal, but that didn’t undo the damage.

The Biden administration is rectifying the problem, and they’re not being shy about it.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan will purge more than 40 outside experts appointed by President Donald Trump from two key advisory panels, a move he says will help restore the role of science at the agency and reduce the heavy influence of industry over environmental regulations.

The unusual decision, announced Wednesday, will sweep away outside researchers picked under the previous administration whose expert advice helped the agency craft regulations related to air pollution, fracking and other issues.

Critics say that under Trump, membership of the two panels — the EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) — tilted too heavily toward regulated industries and their positions sometimes contradicted scientific consensus.

You can look at this as a purge of Trumpists, but it’s more than that. It’s a genuine effort to make these panels operate as they’re supposed to, and this is critical for the country. We can’t make good decisions if we make ourselves intentionally stupid.