Pro-Hillary EPA contractor spread False Story that Trump was shutting down its climate data service

These liars and saboteurs need to be sent packing. Now. Enough is enough. Drain the swamp, already.

“Trump Is Not Shutting Down the EPA’s Data Service,” by Elizabeth Harrington, Washington Free Beacon, April 24, 2017:

A contractor for the Environmental Protection Agency who was “devastated” by Hillary Clinton’s election loss was the source for a false story stating that the agency is shutting down its climate data service.

The EPA’s Open Data service, where users can look up EPA facilities in their area and view pollution graphs, will continue to operate, despite several news reports to the contrary.

Bernadette Hyland, a contractor who has access to the Open Data website, was quoted in several publications, including the Independent, which falsely claimed “Donald Trump is to completely shut down one of the government’s most important data services.”

The Independent warned that citizens would “no longer be able to access information on their environment and climate, keeping them from researching potentially fatal changes to their area.”

The story was based on a claim made by Hyland, who wrote an article on the website Medium on Sunday that said she was notified by the EPA that funding was no longer available to operate Open Data.

She said the Open Data service is used for “climate science research” and “environmental justice.”

Hyland was used as the source for other publications, including Popular Science, which claimed the Open Data website’s “days were numbered,” and EcoWatch, which falsely reported the website was going to be “shut down” on Friday.

The EPA said there were never any plans to shut down the web service and that Hyland was sending unauthorized messages on the agency’s behalf.

An unauthorized pop-up message appeared on the Open Data website on Sunday that read, “This site will be shut down Friday, April 28, 2017.” After the EPA denied the website would be shut down, the pop-up message read: “The data on this Web site will continue to be available on April 28, 2017.”

“This is a contractor sending inappropriate and unauthorized communications on EPA’s behalf,” said J.P. Freire, an EPA spokesman. “The website isn’t going anywhere and this episode has little to nothing to do with contingency plans in case of a shutdown.”…