Current snapshot of the Climate Change section on epa.gov.
Snapshot of the Climate Change section on epa.gov on January 19, 2017.
The EPA has scrubbed the Climate Change section on their website, according to first reports from Buzzfeed. The subsection that was originally accessible by hovering over the 'Environmental Topics' tab on their front page has also been removed at the time of writing, April 29, 2017 at 11:29 a.m. (You can view how the page looked under the Obama Administration through an archived link here.)
Now one has to go to through the A-Z database to access the page and, when accessed, is confronted with a "This page is being updated" message. Specifically, the page states that it's being updated in order to "reflect EPA's priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Administrator Pruitt."
The EPA announced the website changes Friday through a press release that stated the changes including "updating language to reflect the approach of new leadership, is intended to ensure that the public can use the website to understand the agency's current efforts."
J.P. Freire, the Associate Administrator for Public Affairs added that as the EPA renews "its commitment to human health and clean air, land, and water," they also want to "eliminate confusion by removing outdated language first." A lot of these changes align with the Trump's administration's new focus on oil drilling and coal mining.
These changes follow a series of alterations to other governmental websites including Bureau of Land Management, in which their front page used to feature a photo of a family hiking and then photos of a coal mine for a period of time (now it's photos of sheep), the State Department, and the Department of Energy.
Read the full report via Buzzfeed here.