A screenshot of the Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST)
EDGI Works to Safeguard Federal Environmental Data and Information
January 13th, 2025 – In anticipation of a second and likely more significant assault on federal environmental information by the Trump administration, the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) is ramping up its website monitoring work, coordinating a broad multi-organizational data preservation effort, and expanding its civic data science tools for accessing federal environmental data. EDGI is also supporting the End of Term Archive as it works to build the largest archive of federal web-based data and information ever created.
During the first Trump administration, EDGI documented widespread federal agency information suppression, including the removal of climate change web resources and information related to proposed rules. EDGI warns that a second Trump administration will be better positioned to target these public resources, again undermining the public’s right to know and their ability to make informed decisions about their environmental conditions.
EDGI’s main foci within this collective work are: monitoring federal environmental websites for changes to their presentation and access, building a database for proposed rules and related information, identifying federal data and information to prioritize and preserve, and working to ensure that resources preserved in this effort will be accessible and contextualized for researchers and the general public alike.
EDGI wants to reiterate in this moment that until our federal digital information policy prioritizes data resiliency and the public’s right to know, our publicly-funded environmental data and information – knowledge that is critical to our public health and safety, the health of our environment, and addressing environmental justice issues – will remain vulnerable to political interference. We will continue to advocate for progressive and protective federal policies while we safeguard information and build civic technologies for resilience.
EDGI’s environmental experts released the following statements:
Gretchen Gehrke, EDGI co-founder and Website Monitoring Program Lead:
“The first Trump administration engaged in widespread information suppression, and we fully expect them to do this again. We are ready to monitor changes the second Trump administration makes to federal agency websites, and let the public know when they bury environmental justice and climate change data and information.”
Alejandro Paz, EDGI member and Librarian:
“Agency websites are one of the primary ways the federal government communicates with the public. Whether they are used to publicize the work of government scientists or provide updates on regulatory developments, agency websites hold the key to how the public understands what the government is doing and what are its priorities. EDGI will hold the Trump administration accountable for how it manages these important resources.”
Eric Nost, EDGI member and Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Guelph:
“Regardless of what the Trump administration does with federal environmental datasets, it’s important that community advocates and researchers have access to copies of these and are able to make full use of them. That’s why we’re archiving datasets and expanding our civic data science tools.”
CONTACT: EDGI’s environmental experts are available to answer media questions. Please contact Kelly Wilkins-Steinrueck (kelly.w.steinrueck@envirodatagov.org), EDGI’s communications lead, with any inquiries.
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