A US government website that used to warn about the risks of oil and gas drilling was changed to pro
A US government website that used to warn about the risks of oil and gas drilling was changed to promote their economic benefits
WRITTEN BY
Zoë Schlanger
24 mins ago
Until recently, the US Government Accountability Office’s website described oil and gas drilling on federal lands as posing an “inherent risk” to human health and the environment. Now, that language has been replaced with wording about the economic benefits of oil and gas activity.
The edits—made between midday on Feb 15 and midday Feb 16, 2017—were spotted by the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI), a group of programmers and researchers who are tracking changes to federal websites since president Donald Trump took office. They are the latest in a litany of similar modifications, many of which have involved public-health or climate-change science.
The edited page is part the Government Accountability Office’s “High Risk List,” updated every two years with federal agencies or programs the GAO believes are vulnerable to “fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or are most in need of transformation.” Oil and gas resources on federal lands were part of that list under the Obama administration—and remain on it, but without mention of the environmental and public health risks that originally drove their placement there.
Among the changes is the deletion of a line in the opening paragraph that references how rapidly changing drilling technologies that allow drillers to access previously inaccessible oil and gas reserves “challenge the government’s ability to provide oversight.”
More:
https://qz.com/951152/a-us-government-website-that-used-to-warn-about-the-risks-of-oil-and-gas-drilling-was-changed-to-promote-their-economic-benefits/
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