Green Groups Sue Trump Administration Over Climate Websites (1)

The Trump administration is facing a legal challenge over removing multiple tools for mapping climate, pollution and other overlapping risks facing the American public, particularly disadvantaged communities, from federal websites.

In a suit filed Monday in Washington, DC federal court, the Sierra Club and three other environmental groups accused the Trump administration of removing these climate and environmental justice web resources used by the public, academia, green groups and government officials to guide policy making and community planning, among other tasks. The removal of these tools violated the Paperwork Reduction Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, the suit alleges.

“These tools are tax-payer funded and the government has a responsibility to make this information available to the public,” says Darya Minovi, a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit.

In an emailed statement from the EPA, a spokesperson wrote: “In keeping with a longstanding practice, EPA does not comment on pending litigation.” The other agencies named in the lawsuit, including the Departments of Energy and Transportation, did not initially respond to requests for comment. The Council for Environmental Quality, also named in the suit, did not immediately respond either.

Within weeks of President Donald Trump taking office, his administration removed the Environmental Protection Agency’s EJScreen, an interactive mapping tool with local demographic, pollution and environmental justice data, as well as a similar resource overseen by the Council on Environmental Quality called the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, according to the lawsuit. It named three other online tools that were removed by the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Trump administration is increasingly facing court challenges for its watering down or removal of climate policies and information. For example, environmental groups sued the US Department of Agriculture in February for its purge of climate information from its websites. In March, the groups asked for an order to restore the pages while the case was pending.

(Updates the fourth paragraph with EPA comment.)

--With assistance from Malathi Nayak.

To contact the author of this story:
Zahra Hirji in Washington at zhirji@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ana Campoy at acampoy@bloomberg.net

Emily Biuso

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