As Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt faces mounting pressure to resign amid scandals and federal inquiries into his conduct, he unveiled a new rule that scales back what science the agency can use when creating regulations—a move that critics say “serves no purpose other than to prevent the EPA from carrying out its mission of protecting public health and the environment.”

The new policy mandates that the EPA only rely on studies with data that is publicly available, which significantly limits what scientific research the agency can use because so many reports include personal health and proprietary information that must remain confidential. Experts say due to privacy concerns and other restraints, many of the landmark studies that have guided key environmental protections cannot be replicated to comply with the change.

And, while the agency officially revealed the rule following weeks of reporting about its development, journalists were not allowed to attend the announcement on Tuesday to ask further questions, according to Zack Colman, a White House reporter for E&E News.

As one person said on Twitter, “A press conference with no reporter makes as much sense as having Pruitt as head of EPA.”

Liz Perera, Sierra Club’s climate policy director, described Tuesday’s announcement as “just another example of Pruitt siding with polluters over doctors, public health advocates, and parents groups.”

Betsy Southerland, a longtime EPA scientist who famously resigned from the agency last year, warned that the policy will “mean throwing out the studies we rely on to protect the public, for no good reason,” which will “have an enormous and negative impact on the EPA’s ability to enforce the law and protect people’s health.”