The National Academies biased a panel to study the risks from disposing coal wastes in abandoned mines by appointing six members with ties to the mining, coal, and electric utility industries, of whom two have subsequently stepped down after criticism from public interest groups. Congress requested the National Academies to impanel a committee to study the health, safety, and environmental risks of disposing wastes from coal combustion wastes, millions of tons of which are stored in coal mines. These wastes, the product of coal burning power plants, can leach toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic, and lead when the coal ash makes its way into the water. The Center for Science in the Public Interest and a large coalition of public interest groups sent a letter to the National Academies identifying six members of this panel who have strong ties to industries opposed to regulation of coal combustion wastes:

• Patricia A. Buffler, a paid consultant for the Electric Power Research Institute, has been a paid consultant for Pacific Gas & Electric Company and sits on the board of a company whose holdings link it with surface mining. Buffler's association with EPRI is particularly problematic because that company advocates the use of coal combustion wastes as backfill for mine reclamation.
• Y. P. Chugh holds patents related to coal combustion wastes that could mean he has a financial stake in any future regulation of the disposal of these wastes in coal mines.
• Edward M. Green worked for 16 years as general counsel of the mining industry's lobbying association. Green receives a substantial income from mining companies. As a lawyer at Crowell and Moring, he has litigated or filed amicus briefs in a number of cases opposing federal regulations of the mining industry.
• Thomas O'Neil recently retired as president and CEO of Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company and Cliffs Mining Company, and he spent years as an executive and board member of several mining industry enterprises.
• Robin Mills Ridgeway works for Purdue University's coal-fired electric plant, which annually generates 30,000 tons of coal combustion wastes. Purdue is currently using these wastes, among others, to reclaim a large gravel pit on university property, and one purpose of that project is to develop a commercial process converting coal combustion wastes into soil substitute products for mine reclamation and fill projects.
• Richard Sweigard sits on the advisory board of the University of Kentucky's Center for Applied Energy Research, which sponsors a biennial symposium to help industry work with coal combustion wastes.

After the public interest groups called for an investigation of the potential conflicts of interest and imbalance on the panel, Buffler resigned from the committee and the National Academies announced that Green "is no longer serving on the committee." This committee is not the first National Academies panel imbalanced with pro-industry bias. In one case the National Academies stacked mining interests on a panel charged with investigating the clean-up of the Superfund site in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Other recent panels that the National Academies stacked with biased industry representatives include a committee to investigate the health consequences of perchlorate ingestion and one assessing plants genetically modified for pest protection. Conclusions from the National Academies are given great weight in federal policymaking. "Highly influential scientific assessments" must be subjected to arduous peer review procedures under likely forthcoming guidance from the Office of Management and Budget -- unless they are produced by the National Academies, in which case they are deemed trustworthy, even if the assessments come from panels stacked with industry representatives.