Research Tools: EDGI Relaunches Federal Environmental Web Tracker

From EDGI (Environmental Data and Governance Initiative):

In response to the Trump administration’s rapid dismantling of federal websites, the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) has relaunched its Federal Environmental Web Tracker. EDGI has long monitored thousands of federal webpages related to climate, energy, and the environment. The Federal Environmental Web Tracker makes records of significant changes to federal environmental websites publicly available in a searchable database.

Changes to the information that’s available on federal websites demonstrate how public information is leveraged for political means. The flurry of executive orders in the Trump administration’s first weeks have accompanied the disappearance of critical data on agency websites. The information found (or not found) on a federal website can facilitate or hamper public participation and research around crucial environmental policy issues.

Since the first Trump administration, EDGI has monitored thousands of federal environmental webpages. Partners at the Internet Archive download these webpages every day, and EDGI’s open source software compares versions of these webpages to identify differences. Then EDGI’s team of experts analyzes and catalogs changes that are significant, rather than simply administrative. These significant changes are recorded in the Tracker, which EDGI updates weekly. The Tracker gives journalists, researchers, and the public data that can be used to provide insight, documentation, and analysis of the information policies and priorities of the Trump administration.

Direct to Federal Environmental Web Tracker

Direct to Federal Environmental Web Tracker (About Page)

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