WASHINGTON (April 28, 2017)—On the eve of the much-anticipated climate march in Washington, D.C., the Trump administration removed the Environmental Protection Agency's primary climate change web page, and replaced it with a notice that indicates the page is being updated. A press release from EPA issued late Friday evening said the pages were being reviewed because they were associated with the previous administration and "outdated," and that they were being reviewed to “reflect the agency’s new direction under President Donald Trump and Administrator Scott Pruitt.” The notice did include a link to an archived version of the page from January 19, 2017.
Below is a statement by Astrid Caldas, climate scientist at UCS.
“At a time when Americans are increasingly experiencing climate impacts in their daily lives, the administration has seemingly buried its head in the sand. The administration appears to have timed these changes to make information about climate science more challenging to access to coincide with the Peoples Climate March and related news stories, which will likely drive thousands of Americans to visit the EPA website. The facts about climate change have not changed, however, and politics are not a valid reason to archive basic explanations of science.
"While it is unclear what the administration has planned for updating the web page, climate scientists will be watching closely to ensure the scientific accuracy of whatever replaces it, and that the underlying scientific data remain accessible to Americans.”