The financial benefits of the EPA data Trump doesn't want you to know about
Making EPA data easily accessible to the private sector plays a significant role in many billion-dollar industries, from renewable energy to auto manufacturing
For more than 25 years, Walter Hang has helped local governments, engineers and homeowners make sense of hazardous waste. To do that, he digs into the enormous data vault maintained by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and pinpoints information that is useful for his clients to assess the health and financial risks from nearby industrial properties and toxic waste sites.
Hang, who runs Toxics Targeting, now fears this trove of knowledge will become more difficult to access as the EPA's newly minted chief, Scott Pruitt, begins a broad rollback of regulations and shrinks the agency's staff. President Trump has vowed to weaken the EPA, contending that its rules for protecting public health stifle business development. The Trump administration has already eliminated or buried some information on EPA websites and moved to muzzle agency employees.
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