Lead image for op-ed shows smoke stacks in the background of a residential neighborhood.
“It is hard to say there’s nothing we can do about [climate change] when the data show otherwise. It is hard to convince people of a lie when there is data that shows the truth. And the Trump administration knows this.”
Op-ed by EDGI’s @gretchengehrke.bsky.social: thehill.com/opinion/ener...
“The EDGI report reached a similar conclusion: ‘For some of its most important enforcement responsibilities, the track record of the Trump 2.0 EPA in 2025 is the worst of any administration in the last 20 years.’” www.sej.org/publications...
EDGI found 14 of 24 categories of EPA enforcement activities “were at their weakest or second weakest in 2025” when compared to the last 20 years, and “that the EPA started fewer civil judicial cases in 2025” than any other year since 2005. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...
Pollution laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act only work if they’re being enforced. In 2025, EPA investigations of and cases against polluters reached historic lows. A new EDGI report analyzes the agency’s record so far under this Trump administration. envirodatagov.org/publication/...
Your reminder that Amazon...
-Provides cloud services that help fuel ICE's deportation machine
-Donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund
-Scrapped plans to display tariff costs after pressure from Trump
-Shelled out $40M for a documentary about Melania Trump
Data centers add to existing public health burdens.
“A recent study by the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative found that those living within 1 mile of an EPA-regulated data center were breathing air pollution at levels above the national average.” gizmodo.com/data-center-... 1/
Featuring EDGI’s own @gretchengehrke.bsky.social alongside some of our amazing partners in environmental data preservation:
time.com/7344773/wome...
EDGI’s @gretchengehrke.bsky.social will discuss the landscape of federal data — and what groups like EDGI, @publicenvirodata.bsky.social, and others are doing to monitor and preserve it — one year into this Trump administration.
Funding cuts and staffing constraints are impacting @noaa.gov’s Regional Climate Center (RCC) tools and datasets.
EDGI is collecting anonymous feedback from RCC administrators and maintainers to learn how these tools are used and where they're weak and at risk.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
EDGI member @leiffredrickson.bsky.social tells AP, “You can effectively do a lot of deregulation if you just don’t do enforcement.” apnews.com/article/epa-...
(2/2) Want to help us continue our work defending environmental governance systems in 2026? Here are a couple ways:
Donate to help us remain nimble and flexible. Every little bit helps: envirodatagov.org/donate/
Prefer to volunteer? Fill out this interest form: envirodatagov.org/volunteer/
A screenshot of EDGI's December Newsletter showing a short summary of EDGI's work, as well as highlights from 2025.
(1/2) We’re so grateful to the amazing volunteers, staff, and supporters who helped EDGI track and respond to attacks on environmental data and governance systems in 2025. 🫶❤️🔥
This newsletter roundup highlights some of our work this year:
mailchi.mp/1bff9119bf98...
Honored to be included in this @thenation.com list alongside such an inspiring group. We agree that action-oriented collaborative work is a good way to deal with these hard times. So thankful for all the amazing people at EDGI. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Join EDGI & data experts across the country calling for the preservation of NSF’s National Center for Atmospheric Research. NCAR provides critical climate & weather data we all rely on. Sign: tinyurl.com/y68m276s
Thanks @publicenvirodata.bsky.social, @theimpactproject.bsky.social for drafting.
new from me: are data centers going to wipe out water supplies? how much water does ChatGPT really use? and what's going on with that big correction in Empire of AI?
i went long on the conversation around AI and water, and how it's actually about what we want resources to be used for:
Children are especially vulnerable to air pollution. Yet when it comes to setting PM2.5 limits under the Clean Air Act, children’s health has been taken into consideration less & less over the years. Learn more in Marianne Sullivan & Ellen Kohl’s new article in Environmental Health: rdcu.be/eVLO3
I think this post nails the actual problem, for researchers at least—AI hallucinations would simply not be a problem in academic work if we’d not normalized citation-as-signaling rather than actual engagement—you can only cite a fake paper if you’re not in the habit of reading the papers you cite
Zeldin’s EPA is becoming more politicized in its public communications - stoking political division, and making misleading, false, and contradictory statements. That’s according to a new analysis by EDGI researchers.
Read the report here: envirodatagov.org/publication/...
EPA deleted public information about climate change last week. “The effect is to isolate climate change from the issues that affect people’s lives, [EDGI’s Gretchen] Gehrke said: ‘It’s specifically targeting the information about why we should care.’”
grist.org/politics/epa...
The EPA has purged its website of information about the indicators and impacts of climate change. These changes constitute, by far, the most extensive removal of climate change information from the EPA’s website during this administration. envirodatagov.org/epa-scrubs-i...
NIEHS's only journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, has been removed from the web. EHP is one of just a few federally supported journals. While still findable on PubMed Central, the future of the over 18,000 items published by EHP is unclear. envirodatagov.org/niehss-only-...
Aerial view of a forest in the background of a square image that says "Giving Tuesday: EDGI."
This #GivingTuesday, help EDGI continue:
- Protecting public environmental data
- Defending our environmental right to know
- Building more just environmental governance systems.
Donate here: envirodatagov.org/donate/
Federal data and tools are all around us, influencing our lives in ways we often overlook. Our new data story, Protect the Data that Nourishes Us, highlights the data and tools that inform every stage of an apple's life cycle from seed to supermarket.
screening-tools.com/blog/protect...
My ACA current plan is going from $385/mo to $821/mo.
The Trump admin. effort to cut funding for environmental justice programs is the new reality. But the uncertain status of Biden-era grants suggests important local stories remain. #SEJournalReportersToolbox suggests a rescued grants database to help make that possible: www.sej.org/publications...
For any unfamiliar with the quality of journalism at Teen Vogue, it's well known for hard-hitting stories on "politically sensitive" topics including climate.
Then there's CBS: the only major network to increase climate coverage in the last few years. They just axed nearly their whole climate team.
“The cuts to EPA staffing are ‘the biggest blow that agency has ever had’, says Christopher Sellers at Stony Brook University in New York, who interviews EPA scientists for the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative.”
Read the article: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Federal agencies are posting banners on their websites accusing Democrats and the “Radical Left” for the government shutdown, using language that is partisan, disparaging, and contemptuous.
Learn more in our most recent Highlights from the Change Log: envirodatagov.org/federal-agen...
“‘At the end of the day, we need the federal government to [collect climate data],’ says Gretchen Gehrke from EDGI, the initiative that tracks alterations to government websites. ‘There are no other entities that have the resources and the reach to do it.’”
on.ft.com/4ndJ5HI
The Water Tool is “an exploratory & customizable journey through data on drinking water suppliers’ compliance with regulations, watershed pollution, & environmental justice.” Learn about the tool in a new paper by EDGI researchers: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
