Latest news with #EJScreen
The Guardian
15-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Green groups sue Trump administration over government climate webpage removals
Green groups have sued the Trump administration over the removal of government webpages containing federal climate and environmental justice data that they described as 'tantamount to theft'. In the first weeks of its second term, the Trump administration pulled federal websites tracking shifts in the climate, pollution and extreme weather impacts on low-income communities, and identifying pieces of infrastructure that are extremely vulnerable to climate disasters. 'The public has a right to access these taxpayer-funded datasets,' said Gretchen Goldman, president of the science advocacy non-profit Union of Concerned Scientists, which is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. 'From vital information for communities about their exposure to harmful pollution to data that help local governments build resilience to extreme weather events, the public deserves access to federal datasets.' 'Removing government datasets is tantamount to theft,' Goldman added. Filed in a Washington DC district court on Monday, the litigation was brought against federal agencies by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Sierra Club and the Environmental Integrity Project climate groups; the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen; and the anti-pollution group California Communities Against Toxics. It identifies six crucial government-run sites that have been pulled, arguing they must be restored. They include a Biden-era screening tool created to identify disadvantaged communities that would benefit from federal climate and clean energy investments, and an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mapping tool called EJScreen which showed the disparate burdens of pollution alongside socioeconomic indicators. The lawsuit also highlights the Department of Energy's map of resources for energy affordability in low-income communities, and a Department of Transportation Equitable Transportation Community interactive map of transportation insecurity, climate risk and economic vulnerability. Another now defunct tool it spotlights: the Federal Emergency Management Agency's future risk index, meant to help cities, states and businesses prepare for worsening extreme weather, which was re-created by the Guardian last month. 'Simply put, these data and tools save lives, and efforts to delete, unpublish or in any way remove them jeopardize people's ability to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live safe and healthy lives,' said Ben Jealous, executive director of Sierra Club. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Though publications including the Guardian, as well as advocacy groups, have published some recently pulled datasets on newly created webpages, in the absence of resources to continue gathering and publicizing new data, these datasets cannot be updated. Last month, groups also sued the Trump administration over the US Department of Agriculture's removal of climate data. The lawsuit comes as federal officials also fire swaths of federal employees working on climate, environmental and justice-related initiatives, and enact sweeping rollbacks of green policies and regulations. 'The removal of these websites and the critical data they hold is yet another direct attack on the communities already suffering under the weight of deadly air and water,' said Jealous. The EPA, one of the agencies named in the suit, declined to comment on the litigation.
The Guardian
24-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Elimination of federal climate tools, some used to inquire in to Musk's firms, sparks alarm
As Donald Trump's administration continues its purge of federal agencies, environmental justice campaigners are alarmed by the disappearance of federal environmental and climate data tools – some of which have been used to identify pollution concerns about Elon Musk's companies. Several federal agencies, including the EPA and CDC, previously published data regarding pollution levels across the country, as well as data about the vulnerability of each census tract, such as poverty rates and life expectancy. Several of the websites containing that data have gone dark in the weeks following Trump's inauguration. Some, such as the CDC's Social Vulnerability Index, came back online on 11 February following a court order, though they now include a note that the administration and department 'reject' the pages. Climate experts are concerned about the loss of two tools in particular: EJScreen, which mapped pollution burdens alongside socioeconomic indicators and was run by the EPA, and the climate and economic justice screening tool (CEJST), which identified disadvantaged communities that would benefit from climate-related funding. 'The elimination of environmental justice data and environmental justice tools is monumental,' said Naomi Yoder, a GIS data manager in the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice. Yoder is worried about not only the loss of data, but the loss of accessibility. The tools are how 'we show the rest of the world and policymakers that the issues people are talking about on the ground are backed up by data'. The data purge threatens to stymie efforts to protect some of the nation's most polluted communities – including ones where Musk's companies are located. Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, began building the world's largest supercomputer, dubbed 'Colossus,' in South Memphis, Tennessee, over the summer. The facility began operating in December to train Musk's chatbot, Grok. To power the massive data center, xAI has been operating 15 gas turbines. The gas turbines pump pollutants like formaldehyde and nitrous oxide into the surrounding primarily Black neighborhood, campaigners say. A permit application to operate the turbines filed last month indicates the turbines' annual hazardous air pollutants of up to 11.51 tons over 12 months could exceed the EPA's allowed maximum of 10 tons, according to the figures listed in the application. Attorneys from the non-profit Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) used EJScreen to establish that South Memphis, where the xAI facility was built, already suffers from a disproportionately high pollution burden. The census tract is in the 90th percentile in the US for 'toxic releases to air', and neighboring tracts are within the 95th percentile for ozone, according to EJScreen data that has now been preserved by archivists. The SELC campaign says that the gas turbines used by xAI will further worsen ground level ozone, better known as smog. South Memphis has long suffered from high asthma rates and poor air quality. People with asthma are particularly susceptible to ozone, which can aggravate the condition and increase hospital admissions. Libbie Weimer, a geospatial analyst at SELC, has used EJScreen in her day-to-day work for years. 'There are pollution concerns at that facility,' explained Weimer, and the surrounding neighborhood 'is a historically African-American community' that already experiences an outsized pollution burden. The SELC also used the National Emissions Inventory (NEI) to show that xAI's gas turbines, when used at full capacity, constitute the 9th-largest emitter of nitrous oxide in Shelby county, Tennessee. The NEI was taken down, but later restored after the 11 February court order. SELC referred to the NEI data in August, when asking the Shelby county health department to order xAI to cease operations until it had obtained a permit for the turbines, which it says are illegal. Tools like EJScreen 'help us quickly and efficiently get some baseline information about who's impacted', explained Weimer. 'The thing that's really important about it is that EJScreen, especially … democratizes access to this information.' The tools allowed anyone to 'easily look up and access information that's super relevant to the work they're doing, without necessarily going through the bottleneck of consulting technical experts'. An EPA spokesperson said in response to queries that the agency 'is working to diligently implement President Trump's executive orders, including the 'Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing''. They continued: 'President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people to do just this. President Trump advanced conservation and environmental stewardship in his first term and the EPA will continue to uphold its mission to protect human health and the environment in his second term.' xAI did not respond to requests to comment. Campaigners say the missing datasets from various federal environmental data tools could have been used to examine the impact of Musk's business efforts elsewhere. Musk's SpaceX is seeking permission to launch starships from the Kennedy Space Center. The company's application for a commercial launch vehicle operator license to launch their Starship Super Heavy is still pending with the FAA. Its application is opposed by various environmental groups and advocates, including the Southeastern Fisheries Association, who have urged the FAA to consider environmental justice and the project's 'substantial impacts to disadvantaged communities'. That application must pass several steps first – including an environmental permit review. In EPA comments to the FAA, the agency 'strongly' urged the FAA to use the now-deleted EJScreen tool during their environmental review, in order to account for environmental justice. If the FAA were still able to use the tool, it would find the area where SpaceX intends to launch Starships is among the 88th percentile for cancer rates for adults. Some of Musk's Starships have exploded during flight, creating vast clouds of metal particulates, which have been linked to lung cancer. In response to queries from the Guardian, FAA public affairs specialist Steve Kulm said 'the FAA is committed to conducting environmental reviews in compliance with all applicable executive orders and environmental laws and regulations'. SpaceX has previously been found to have reportedly ignored environmental regulations: the company's headquarters in Cameron county, Texas, discharged thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater into the environment, for which it was fined over $150,000 for violating the Clean Water Act. SpaceX was facing multiple lawsuits from environmental groups. One of those lawsuits was dropped Monday after campaigners said they no longer felt optimistic about the suit's outcome. The EJScreen tool indicated that the headquarters in Cameron county are in an area in the 98th percentile of drinking water non-compliance, according to its environmental justice index, which takes into account the percentage of low-income homes and people of color alongside compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. The new administration has also ordered the elimination of any directives associated with Biden's Justice40 initiative – affiliates of which have campaigned against his Tesla Gigafactory. The EPA's office of environmental justice and external civil rights has also been eliminated. 'There's been a huge effort from the Trump administration to wipe out access. Those datasets might even still be there, but the public can't readily use them,' said Yoder. 'Now it's going to require a team of specialists for many hours to get anything close to the same thing.' SpaceX did not respond to requests to comment.
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Staff let go, map tool shut down in tumultuous week at EPA
In the brief week and a half Lee Zeldin has helmed the Environmental Protection Agency, a flurry of personnel moves have dramatically shaken up the agency — like many others — and rattled some staff members. On the day of Zeldin's confirmation last week, the EPA notified about 1,100 'probationary' employees who had been at the agency for less than a year that they could be terminated at any time. Then on Thursday, the agency put 168 staffers on administrative leave; those affected worked on environmental justice issues across the EPA's 10 regional offices and at its headquarters. The agency this week also took down an online mapping tool called EJScreen, which had been used by federal, state and local governments to help policymakers make decisions in support of environmental justice. The term refers to the idea that people should have equitable access to clean and healthy environments and that some underserved communities have historically faced disproportionate environmental harms. A state highway agency, for example, could use EJScreen to review demographic information as it planned a roadway construction project. Zeldin assumed his post a day after federal workers received 'Fork in the Road' emails offering them buyouts to resign. Their deadline to accept the offer was Thursday night, but a federal judge put initiative on hold that day, following a legal challenge from labor unions. The program is blocked until at least Monday. In an address to staffers viewed by more than 10,000 of them on Tuesday, Zeldin said he had a mandate to streamline the EPA and reduce waste within it. 'We have a charge from Congress to be as efficient as we possibly can with the tax dollars that are sent to us,' Zeldin said, adding that Americans were feeling 'a lot of economic pain.' His initial actions, and the shock they have given staffers, suggest that Zeldin and the Trump administration are wasting no time in dramatically remaking the EPA and redefining its purpose, abandoning an approach in which environmental harms are seen through a lens of race or socioeconomic disadvantage. Molly Vaseliou, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson, said the EPA is focused on complying with President Donald Trump's executive orders, including the order titled 'Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs.' 'The EPA is diligently implementing President Trump's executive orders as well as subsequent associated implementation memos. President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people to do just this,' Vaseliou said. Several EPA staffers said a sense of fear and foreboding has quickly pervaded the agency. 'The past two weeks have been pretty horrendous,' said Marie Owens Powell, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, a union that represents about 8,500 EPA staffers. 'Every day, it's been something. It has been exhausting.' Powell, who has worked as a storage tank inspector at the EPA, added that there had been other recent surprises, like when staffers' preferred pronouns were removed from their email signatures without notice. Another EPA worker, who asked that their name not be published out of fear of retribution, described the feeling as being 'in limbo' or 'purgatory.' 'We're afraid to do work that could be viewed as being out of compliance with executive orders or at all in opposition to Trump's agenda. We want to speak up and push back, but the fear in that is palpable,' the staffer said. 'We are all just waiting to see who is next.' Vaseliou said Zeldin spent his first weeks meeting career EPA staff and visiting several disaster sites, including East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying chemicals derailed in February 2023 and released toxic smoke. He also went to Los Angeles, where wildfires that broke out last month torched thousands of homes, and to western North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene killed dozens. In a news release on Tuesday, Zeldin laid out five priorities for the EPA under his leadership, including efforts to 'pursue energy independence,' develop 'the cleanest energy on the planet' and ensure clean air and water. Some parts of his agenda, however, diverge from the EPA's core mission — at least as it has operated under past administrations. Those include advancing artificial intelligence, reforming permitting and bringing back automotive jobs. Jeremy Symons, senior adviser at the Environmental Protection Network, a group of former EPA staffers, said he was concerned about the direction the agency may head, based on Zeldin's statements. 'It's hard to see yourself in that agenda if you're worried about toxic pollution in your community,' said Symons, who worked at the EPA from 1994 to 2001. 'It's an alarming retreat from EPA's mission of protecting public health and the environment, in service of a political agenda.' Democrats in Congress appear to be gearing up for fights over the EPA's future. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., attempted to enter the agency headquarters on Thursday, asking for a meeting with representatives of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, who he said he believed were working at the agency. 'We just went in and asked for a meeting with the DOGE representatives, and we were denied and we were turned away,' Markey said at a news conference outside the building, where he railed against the new administration. Vaseliou said Markey had not taken the proper steps needed to enter the headquarters and described the event as a 'publicity stunt.' A spokeswoman for Markey said Thursday that the senator had not received confirmation about whether DOGE representatives were at the EPA. However, the name of a worker whom NBC News has identified as a member of DOGE, Cole Killian, was listed in the EPA's directory, according to multiple sources. An email to Killian's EPA email requesting an interview was not immediately returned. Vaseliou did not answer questions about Killian or whether he was connected to DOGE. When asked about Markey's concerns on Thursday, Harrison Fields, a White House deputy press secretary, said Democrats were 'gaslighting' about DOGE's mission. 'Slashing waste, fraud, and abuse, and becoming better stewards of the American taxpayer's hard-earned dollars might be a crime to Democrats, but it's not a crime in a court of law,' Fields said. This article was originally published on
NBC News
08-02-2025
- Business
- NBC News
Staff let go, map tool shut down in tumultuous week at EPA
The Summary In the last two weeks, EPA staffers have had to contend with dramatic shake-ups at the agency. About 1,100 'probationary' employees were told they could be terminated, and 168 staffers working on environmental justice issues were put on leave. Lee Zeldin, the EPA's new administrator, said his priorities for the agency include boosting AI and automotive jobs. In the brief week and a half Lee Zeldin has helmed the Environmental Protection Agency, a flurry of personnel moves have dramatically shaken up the agency — like many others — and rattled some staff members. On the day of Zeldin's confirmation last week, the EPA notified about 1,100 'probationary' employees who had been at the agency for less than a year that they could be terminated at any time. Then on Thursday, the agency put 168 staffers on administrative leave; those affected worked on environmental justice issues across the EPA's 10 regional offices and at its headquarters. The agency this week also took down an online mapping tool called EJScreen, which had been used by federal, state and local governments to help policymakers make decisions in support of environmental justice. The term refers to the idea that people should have equitable access to clean and healthy environments and that some underserved communities have historically faced disproportionate environmental harms. A state highway agency, for example, could use EJScreen to review demographic information as it planned a roadway construction project. Zeldin assumed his post a day after federal workers received 'Fork in the Road' emails offering them buyouts to resign. Their deadline to accept the offer was Thursday night, but a federal judge put initiative on hold that day, following a legal challenge from labor unions. The program is blocked until at least Monday. In an address to staffers viewed by more than 10,000 of them on Tuesday, Zeldin said he had a mandate to streamline the EPA and reduce waste within it. 'We have a charge from Congress to be as efficient as we possibly can with the tax dollars that are sent to us,' Zeldin said, adding that Americans were feeling 'a lot of economic pain.' His initial actions, and the shock they have given staffers, suggest that Zeldin and the Trump administration are wasting no time in dramatically remaking the EPA and redefining its purpose, abandoning an approach in which environmental harms are seen through a lens of race or socioeconomic disadvantage. Molly Vaseliou, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson, said the EPA is focused on complying with President Donald Trump's executive orders, including the order titled 'Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs.' 'The EPA is diligently implementing President Trump's executive orders as well as subsequent associated implementation memos. President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people to do just this,' Vaseliou said. Several EPA staffers said a sense of fear and foreboding has quickly pervaded the agency. 'The past two weeks have been pretty horrendous,' said Marie Owens Powell, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, a union that represents about 8,500 EPA staffers. 'Every day, it's been something. It has been exhausting.' Powell, who has worked as a storage tank inspector at the EPA, added that there had been other recent surprises, like when staffers' preferred pronouns were removed from their email signatures without notice. Another EPA worker, who asked that their name not be published out of fear of retribution, described the feeling as being 'in limbo' or 'purgatory.' 'We're afraid to do work that could be viewed as being out of compliance with executive orders or at all in opposition to Trump's agenda. We want to speak up and push back, but the fear in that is palpable,' the staffer said. 'We are all just waiting to see who is next.' Vaseliou said Zeldin spent his first weeks meeting career EPA staff and visiting several disaster sites, including East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying chemicals derailed in February 2023 and released toxic smoke. He also went to Los Angeles, where wildfires that broke out last month torched thousands of homes, and to western North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene killed dozens. In a news release on Tuesday, Zeldin laid out five priorities for the EPA under his leadership, including efforts to 'pursue energy independence,' develop 'the cleanest energy on the planet' and ensure clean air and water. Some parts of his agenda, however, diverge from the EPA's core mission — at least as it has operated under past administrations. Those include advancing artificial intelligence, reforming permitting and bringing back automotive jobs. Jeremy Symons, senior adviser at the Environmental Protection Network, a group of former EPA staffers, said he was concerned about the direction the agency may head, based on Zeldin's statements. 'It's hard to see yourself in that agenda if you're worried about toxic pollution in your community,' said Symons, who worked at the EPA from 1994 to 2001. 'It's an alarming retreat from EPA's mission of protecting public health and the environment, in service of a political agenda.' Democrats in Congress appear to be gearing up for fights over the EPA's future. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., attempted to enter the agency headquarters on Thursday, asking for a meeting with representatives of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, who he said he believed were working at the agency. 'We just went in and asked for a meeting with the DOGE representatives, and we were denied and we were turned away,' Markey said at a news conference outside the building, where he railed against the new administration. Vaseliou said Markey had not taken the proper steps needed to enter the headquarters and described the event as a 'publicity stunt.' A spokeswoman for Markey said Thursday that the senator had not received confirmation about whether DOGE representatives were at the EPA. However, the name of a worker whom NBC News has identified as a member of DOGE, Cole Killian, was listed in the EPA's directory, according to multiple sources. An email to Killian's EPA email requesting an interview was not immediately returned. Vaseliou did not answer questions about Killian or whether he was connected to DOGE. When asked about Markey's concerns on Thursday, Harrison Fields, a White House deputy press secretary, said Democrats were 'gaslighting' about DOGE's mission. 'Slashing waste, fraud, and abuse, and becoming better stewards of the American taxpayer's hard-earned dollars might be a crime to Democrats, but it's not a crime in a court of law,' Fields said.
The Hill
07-02-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Environmental justice staff put on leave at EPA
The employees were part of the agency's Office of Environmental Justice, which sought to help people in areas with significant levels of pollution — including minority neighborhoods. EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou confirmed 168 staff members in the office were placed on leave since 'their function did not relate to the agency's statutory duties or grant work.' Vaseliou also cited President Trump's executive order that directs all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff to be put on leave and said the EPA is 'in the process of evaluating new structure and organization to ensure we are meeting our mission of protecting human health and the environment for all Americans.' In addition to the suspensions, a tool known as EJScreen, which showed how pollution data intersected with demographic and income data, was offline as of Friday. Studies, including those conducted by the EPA in the past, have found that Black Americans in particular face high levels of pollution, and the disparities they face are even more pronounced than disparities faced by the poor.
