What The Hell America!

The list of cuts to data-gathering bodies goes on—and on. The formerly 350-person U.S. Energy Information Administration collects troves of information that’s closely monitored by the energy industry, including weekly reports on oil and natural gas production, electricity prices, and fuel exports. That independent agency, housed within the Department of Energy, has reportedly lost 100 staffers as a result of government layoffs, resignations, and buyouts. Under fear of retaliation from the administration, ProPublica reported that EIA staffers canceled standard-order promotion of its Annual Energy Outlook and withheld the report’s 50-plus-page narrative portion, which discusses a projected rapid growth in alternative energy and diminishing U.S. reliance on coal, oil, and gas. A draft of that deleted section, obtained and reviewed by ProPublica, noted a reference case showing that increased electricity demand would be met through 2050 “mainly by generation from renewable sources” and that there would be “declines” in domestic oil and gas consumption.

To be sure, some of the information gathering now under attack from the White House could be replicated elsewhere. Last week, the administration dismissed all 400 authors of the upcoming National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated report used by federal agencies, states, local governments, and private companies to understand climate risk and prepare for the impact of future storms, floods, and wildfires. The American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society then pledged to pick up that work, collecting peer-reviewed research assessing the current and future climate impacts in the U.S.

There’s no easy substitute, though, for the vast array of research in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. As the White House undermines the government’s ability to understand the world, it’ll get harder and harder to tell just how much damage its attacks on federal data collection are causing.