Environmental Partners Archive 362 Purged Federal Datasets

The Public Environmental Data Partners (PEDP) archived 362 federal environmental datasets and seven tools after the Trump administration purged the information from government websites. The initiative, co-launched by the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, began preemptively saving data on weather, water quality, and climate change following the 2024 federal election.

Among the saved resources is the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, which the administration dismantled in January. Nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies continue to use these archived materials for infrastructure decisions and disaster response. For example, analysts used the tool to identify high flood risks in Kerr County, Central Texas, following devastating flash floods in July.

Jessie Mahr of the Environmental Policy Innovation Center noted that archiving preserves historical records but does not solve the problem of halted data production. Mahr warned that the cessation of new federal data collection poses a long-term threat to public health and disaster preparedness.