EDGI’s website governance working group produces technical reports which detail observed website changes. These technical reports have revealed changes such as the Bureau of Land Management deleting critical contextual information about Greater Sage Grouse management during a related regulatory process, and the Department of Energy Office of Technology Transitions removing the phrase “clean energy,” leaving only “energy” in its place.
Department of the Interior (DOI) | Report written: July 28, 2020 |There has been a significant reduction in the financial transparency of the Department of the Interior (DOI). Between March and May 2020, DOI removed the budget justifications for all years prior to FY2020 that had been hosted on its DOI.gov website. The URLs for … Read more
Department of the Interior (DOI) | Report written: June 1, 2020 | In March 2020, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) changed its tagline, highlighted in every DOI webpage (www.doi.gov/) footer, from “Protecting America’s Great Outdoors and Powering Our Future” to “Stewarding Conservation and Powering Our Future.” This represents a trend in the Department’s … Read more
Department of the Interior (DOI) | Report written: May 4, 2020 | In March 2019, the Department of the Interior (DOI) updated the dropdown list of “Priorities” on its webpages to include a new priority of “Recreation.” The landing page of the new priority included links to recreational resources at four of DOI’s bureaus: National … Read more
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | Report written: December 10, 2019 | This report covers changes made to the EPA’s Unconventional Oil and Gas Extraction (UOG) Effluent Guidelines webpage between July 1 and July 5, 2019, including the removal of information relevant to UOG extraction wastewater management and the final rule’s enforcement. The webpage provides contextual … Read more
Department of the Interior (DOI) | Report written: February 28, 2019 | Since Summer 2018, the Department of the Interior (DOI) has restricted access to its primary climate change webpage: https://www.doi.gov/climate. This change extends previous content removals from the page reported on by EDGI in 2017. DOI has also removed “Climate Change” from its linked … Read more
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) | Report written: February 25, 2019 |Different federal agencies managed their web resources differently during the recent 35-day partial government shutdown. Many agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed a banner at the top of webpages to inform the public that websites would not be updated, and … Read more
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) | Report written: December 18, 2018 | The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) removed and altered web resources regarding conservation efforts for the sage grouse during the period between March and December 2018, when sage grouse conservation plans have been under revision by BLM. Screenshots
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | Report written: October 31, 2018 | Since April 2017, EPA has substituted their climate change subdomain with a splash page stating that these sites were being updated to reflect the views of the Trump administration. In October 2018, EPA modified that splash page to remove any mention of “updating” and … Read more
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | Report written: October 9, 2018 | The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) former “Natural Gas Extraction – Hydraulic Fracturing” webpage has been updated to entirely remove the page title and change it to “Unconventional Oil and Natural Gas Development.” A section detailing EPA stakeholder outreach called “Promoting Transparency and Conducting Outreach” … Read more
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) | Report written: September 25, 2018 | The U.S. Department of Interior’s (DOI) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has removed links and content related to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and to “Incidental Take” from three webpages in the FWS domain. The FWS “Incidental Take” page itself has … Read more