When the Trump administration took down websites over the past three months that track pollution and climate impacts on low-income communities, it removed key sources of government data about the environmental risks faced by tens of thousands of Americans. 

On Monday, environmental groups filed a lawsuit in federal court to force the administration to restore these websites.

“This isn’t controversial stuff. These are tools that present factual information in a way that allows policy makers to refer to them quickly, for communities to understand and engage with information,” said Zach Shelley, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group. “Without this information, it’s going to be harder for people to engage with their government and for policy makers to understand the consequence their actions will have.”

The lawsuit, filed by Public Citizen and the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program on behalf of the Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, Environmental Integrity Project and California Communities Against Toxics, says the Trump administration illegally removed websites that were designed to provide interactive and easy-to-access information for anyone looking to track climate-related risks or pollution in disadvantaged communities. These sites were used by a range of people, from academics to government officials to neighborhood advocacy groups, concerned about the impacts of a project in their community.

“People were using them for all different types of research and advocacy, probably in ways you can’t imagine, but they were extremely effective because they brought together all these disparate sources of data,” said Kameron Kerger, a systems designer with the Environmental Policy Innovation Center and a deputy director with the White House Council on Environmental Quality during the Biden administration. “Federal agencies were using these tools to set policy about the environment, climate and human health—to understand certain things and take action.”

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, identifies six government-run sites, but primarily focuses on two. One, the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), was developed during the Biden administration to support efforts to direct 40 percent of federal climate and clean energy investments toward low-income or underserved communities through an initiative known as Justice40. Another is an interactive mapping tool called EJScreen, which was first made public in 2015 to share government data on local pollution and demographics by generating reports and maps that allowed users to compare data across different areas.

“Community members in these quote–unquote disadvantaged communities were using these tools to advocate for themselves,” said Kerger, who helped develop the CEJST tool, but was not involved in the lawsuit. “The data validated their lived experience, the truth on the ground. They could point to the government data to prove what they were saying.”

The lawsuit also identifies the Department of Energy’s Low-Income Energy Affordability Data (LEAD) Tool and Community Benefits Plan Map, the Department of Transportation’s Equitable Transportation Community (ETC) Explorer and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Future Risk Index.

“It’s hugely devastating to see these tools removed—the public has a right to this information,” said Darya Minovi, a senior analyst at the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “The tools are largely looking at disproportionate impacts among people overburdened by poverty and racism, and historically disenfranchised by public policy. They’re the ones that are going to be burdened the most by removing these tools.”

“The data validated their lived experience, the truth on the ground. They could point to the government data to prove what they were saying.”

— Kameron Kerger, Environmental Policy Innovation Center

The Trump administration took down these tools in January and February, providing “no notice and no reasoned explanation before removing public access to the tools and webpages,” the lawsuit says.

After the administration removed the websites, environmental groups restored some of the data on new sites. 

“Those organizations that are out there, working to stand up this data—it’s a valiant and important effort,” Minovi said. But, she explained, the data isn’t being updated as the government-maintained data was, and it may not be as accessible to people who don’t know where to look.

“It’s a frozen-in-time version of the data sets,” she said. “But also, it should not be the work of nonprofits and outside organizations to do the government’s job.”

Kerger said the repercussions could last decades, even if future administrations restart these tools.

“The data is going to stop at 2025,” Kerger said. “We’re not going to understand the impact of Justice40 and the Inflation Reduction Act, which was a big investment in fighting against climate change. We won’t be able to learn because the data will be frozen and even if we start up in the future, there will just be a huge gap.”

An EPA spokesperson said Monday, “In keeping with a longstanding practice, EPA does not comment on pending litigation.” 

The other defendants named in the suit—the Council on Environmental Quality, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency—did not respond to requests for comment.

Georgina Gustin

Reporter, Washington, D.C.

Georgina Gustin covers agriculture for Inside Climate News, and has reported on the intersections of farming, food systems and the environment for much of her journalism career. Her work has won numerous awards, including the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism, and she was twice named the Glenn Cunningham Agricultural Journalist of the Year, once with ICN colleagues. She has worked as a reporter for The Day in New London, Conn., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and CQ Roll Call, and her stories have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post and National Geographic’s The Plate, among others. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

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