According to court documents submitted on Monday in a deletion lawsuit, the Agriculture Department plans to reinstate climate change information that was removed from its website when President Trump took office.
The omitted information encompassed pages detailing federal funding and loans, forest conservation, and rural clean energy initiatives. This also included sections from the U.S. Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Services, featuring climate risk viewers, including comprehensive maps that illustrate how climate change impacts national forests and grasslands.
The February lawsuit indicated that farmers’ access to pivotal information was hindered, affecting their ability to make timely decisions amid business risks tied to climate change, such as heat waves, droughts, floods, and wildfires.
The lawsuit was filed by the Organic Farming Association in Northeast New York alongside two environmental organizations, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group.
The plaintiffs sought a court mandate requiring the department to restore the deleted pages. On Monday, the government affirmed that this restoration would be compulsory.
Jay Clayton, a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, informed Judge Margaret M. Garnett that he represents the agricultural division in this suit and has commenced the process of restoring the pages and interactive tools highlighted in the complaint. He indicated that the department “anticipates completing the restoration process significantly in about two weeks.”
Clayton requested a postponement of the hearing set for May 21, suggesting a report on the restoration progress be submitted in three weeks, and mentioned he is working on determining “the appropriate next steps in this lawsuit.”
“The USDA is pleased to recognize that the unlawful removal of climate change-related information is detrimental to farmers and communities nationwide,” stated Jeffrey Stein, assistant attorney for Earthjustice, an environmental law nonprofit that represents the plaintiffs, alongside the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
Source: www.nytimes.com
