EDGI’s Public Comment on EPA’s NPDES Renewal for Chelsea Creek

EDGI’s Public Comment on EPA’s NPDES Renewal for Chelsea Creek

Chelsea River, aka Chelsea Creek, is the site of seven oil storage facilities whose permits, issued by EPA Region 1 under National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems (NPDES), are up for renewal this year. These facilities store 70-80% of the New England region’s heating oil and all of the jet fuel for the Boston Logan International … Read more

EDGI’s New Code of Conduct Emphasizes Restorative Justice

EDGI’s New Code of Conduct Emphasizes Restorative Justice

By Kelsey Breseman EDGI is proud to announce an all-new Code of Conduct (see below), which places fresh emphasis on the values we embrace (rather than simply what behaviors will be disallowed) and references a restorative justice-based toolkit for conflict resolution. The new Code of Conduct, a replacement to EDGI’s former Code of Conduct, applies … Read more

How the Biden Administration Can Protect Public Environmental Information

How the Biden Administration Can Protect Public Environmental Information

Just one week into Biden’s presidency, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced its intent to review the effectiveness of scientific integrity policies across federal agencies, stating that, “scientific findings should never be distorted or influenced by political considerations.” The OSTP review provides an opportunity to address the policy gaps in the governance of public information found on the websites of federal agencies, an issue that the website monitoring team of the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative has been tracking since the beginning of the Trump presidency. 

Say Goodbye to the Obama Era “All of the Above” Energy Approach

Say Goodbye to the Obama Era “All of the Above” Energy Approach

The BLM has removed the phrase “all of the above energy approach.” The image on the left shows BLM’s “Energy and Minerals” webpage on January 20, 2021, and the image on the right shows the same webpage on January 21, 2021. Text highlighted in red was deleted; text highlighted in green was added.  Welcome! This … Read more

EPA Indicates Bold Support for Scientific Integrity on Its Website

EPA Indicates Bold Support for Scientific Integrity on Its Website

The “EPA Actions to Address PFAS” webpage was changed to reflect EPA career scientists’ conclusions about the latest toxicity assessment for PFBS guidelines and their decision to remove the document. The image on the left represents the webpage on January 20, 2021; the image on the right represents the webpage on February 9, 2021. Words … Read more

Climate Silence and the Trump Administration’s Censorship of Federal Environmental Agency Websites

Climate Silence and the Trump Administration’s Censorship of Federal Environmental Agency Websites

A new paper by the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) summarizes how the Trump administration took unprecedented steps to censor climate change-related information—including by limiting access to websites about its causes and actions that mitigate it, as well as by changing the language used to refer to it.