An analysis by the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) has revealed that a “substantial” number of resources and references to climate change have been removed from a website maintained by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The site has also been renamed, changing from “Climate and Energy Resources for State, Local, and Tribal Governments” to “Energy Resources for State, Local, and Tribal Governments.”
These pages were among a wide swathe of content relating to climate science that was made inaccessible to the public in April 2017 so that changes could be made to reflect the agency’s priorities under the Trump administration. The energy resources site is the first to have any significant amount of material return to public view.
The EDGI’s analysis indicates that 15 direct references to climate change have been scrubbed from the main page alone. Earlier this month, the EPA released their list of priorities for the next four years, which did not include climate change, and the current EPA head Scott Pruitt has publicly downplayed the role that carbon emissions have on the process.
“There is no more significant threat than climate change, and it isn’t just happening to people in far-off countries — it’s happening to us,” Gina McCarthy, who served as administrator of the EPA under President Obama, said in a statement to The New York Times. “It is beyond comprehension that E.P.A. would ever purposely limit and remove access to information that communities need to save lives and property. Clearly, this was not a technical glitch, it was a planned shutdown.”
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