Forgive me for referencing another thread in another forum, but, as I have said, a person will filer which "facts" s/he will accept as "facts" (instead of "conjecture" or "fantasy" or "bad science"). This will be based upon his/her previous opinion.

So, we drag the policy process out into the open.

Then we try to avoid the emotional discussions ("but what about the children?").

Then see if you can hit a consensus for 90% of the population.

Personally, I think things like opening Alaska up for resource exploitation >SHOULD< be discussed in public. If you make a mistake, you can do a lot of damage. But that doesn't mean that we have to skip all exploitation. Or that suitable safeguards can't be put in place.

But doing it simply by pre-screening your "experts" for people who already agree with your policy is beyond stupid (but it does make good politics).