Doug Ericksen, head of communications for President Trump’s EPA transition team, says that during the transition period, agency scientists will have their work vetted on a “case by case” basis before it can be published and dispersed outside the agency.
But “any review would directly contradict the agency’s current scientific integrity policy, which was published in 2012. It prohibits ‘all EPA employees, including scientists, managers and other Agency leadership from suppressing, altering, or otherwise impeding the timely release of scientific findings or conclusions,’” says NPR.
Erickson didn’t say whether the additional scrutiny will continue past the transition period.
Other administrations have controlled content on the EPA’s site. A 2013 statement by the Society of Environmental Journalists described the EPA under former President Obama’s watch as “one of the most closed, opaque agencies to the press.” And according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, George W. Bush‘s administration attempted to delete a 1,000-year temperature record and insert a study funded by the American Petroleum Institute downplaying climate change.
“It’s certainly the case that every administration tries to control information, but I think that what we’re seeing here is much more sweeping than has ever been done before,” said Andrew Light, senior fellow in the Global Climate Program at the nonpartisan World Resources Institute. “And in particular, it’s noteworthy that it seems to be aimed at a cluster of science-driven agencies that primarily work on the environment and climate change.”