Christopher Schuler (Sierra Club), christopher.schuler@sierraclub.org
Tom Pelton (Environmental Integrity Project), tpelton@environmentalintegrity.org
Lana Cohen (Union of Concerned Scientists), lcohen@ucsusa.org
Gretchen Gehrke (EDGI), gretchen.gehrke@envirodatagov.org
Washington, DC – This week, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Integrity Project, and the Union of Concerned Scientists submitted multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to various agencies across the Trump administration in an effort to protect critical environmental data from being destroyed or discarded. The groups submitted comprehensive requests to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE).
The FOIA requests submitted are part of a broad effort the groups are again deploying alongside the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI).
The coalition is working to preserve priority worksheets, statistics, datasets, and public-facing tools from being deleted or otherwise made inaccessible to the public. Under the FOIA statute, agencies are prohibited from destroying any information that is subject to a pending request.
Quotes from the participating organizations can be found below:
“The American people have a right to continued access to the valuable data and information their tax dollars help compile, no matter who might be president,” said Andrea Issod, senior attorney in the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program. “This information is critical to the work being done to protect public health, avoid the very worst of the climate crisis, and continue to grow the clean energy economy. We will continue to pursue these and all other avenues available to us under the law to protect the public interest and our planet.”
“People use these federal environmental data and tools for a variety of purposes, from innovation to advocacy to personal decisions,” said Gretchen Gehrke, EDGI’s Website Monitoring Lead. “The public has a right to this data and information, and we are working to protect, preserve, and improve public access to them.”
"Sunlight is still the best disinfectant. Public access to government data and information is essential to holding elected officials, regulators, and polluters accountable under the law," said Courtney Bernhardt, Research Director of the Environmental Integrity Project.
“The public has a right to science-based information that will help them, as well as regulators and researchers, make decisions to protect public health,” said Darya Minovi, Senior Analyst of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Hiding public data for political reasons is not a good look for any administration.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.