website monitoring

EDGI Urges White House Scientific Integrity Task Force to Improve Public Information Policies

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EDGI Urges White House Scientific Integrity Task Force to Improve Public Information Policies

Stronger public information policies are necessary for stronger scientific integrity policies. This comment underscores that relationship by providing specific examples of federal website information management decisions during the Trump administration that were at odds with scientific integrity and undermined public trust. The comment then relays a series of recommendations to promote and protect the free flow of scientific information from the government to the public, and utilize websites as a vehicle for building public trust in the government by facilitating greater environmental, scientific, and civic literacy.

How the Biden Administration Can Protect Public Environmental Information

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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

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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

New Report Shows Pattern Under Trump of Federal Agencies Removing Public Information Prior to Environmental Proceedings

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New Report Shows Pattern Under Trump of Federal Agencies Removing Public Information Prior to Environmental Proceedings

Today, the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) releases Access Denied: Federal Web Governance Under the Trump Administration. The report examines the Trump administration’s management of federal websites related to environmental regulation and makes recommendations for the Biden administration moving forward. Currently, there are few policies governing website content.

Goodbye Homeland Security, Hello Emergency Response: EPA Renames a Major Research Initiative

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Goodbye Homeland Security, Hello Emergency Response: EPA Renames a Major Research Initiative

Between January 4, 2021 (left) and January 19, 2021 (right), EPA’s Homeland Security Research webpage began redirecting to a new webpage, Emergency Response Research. Welcome! This post is part of the EDGI Website Monitoring Team’s “Change of the Week” blog series. The purpose of this series is to highlight interesting changes we have observed in … Read more

Only One EPA Web Resource Has Been Restored — Entirely Scrubbed of Climate Change Content

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Only One EPA Web Resource Has Been Restored — Entirely Scrubbed of Climate Change Content

The “Climate and Energy Resources for State, Local, and Tribal Governments” website (left) was replaced with the “Energy Resources for State, Local, and Tribal Governments” website (right), which omitted all climate information. Welcome! This post is part of the EDGI Website Monitoring Team’s “Change of the Week” blog series. The purpose of this series is … Read more

Change of the Week: Story of Clean Power Plan Website Removal Underscores Need for Better Information Policies

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Change of the Week: Story of Clean Power Plan Website Removal Underscores Need for Better Information Policies

This week’s change of the week was made in April 2017 and features the redirecting of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan website to a single webpage about a 2017 executive order on “energy independence.” We discussed this issue in our 2018 public comment on the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan, and it underscores the urgent need to develop better web resource policies. 

Change of the Week: It’s the two-year anniversary of EPA abandoning its Climate Change website “updates”

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Change of the Week: It’s the two-year anniversary of EPA abandoning its Climate Change website “updates”

Welcome! This post is part of the EDGI Website Monitoring Team’s “Change of the Week” blog series. The purpose of this series is to highlight interesting changes we have observed in the language used on, or access to, federal websites. We want to share these changes to encourage public engagement with and discussion of their … Read more