"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released draft staff reports Thursday on the proposed Yucca Mountain repository but omitted any conclusions about whether the site would be safe for storing radioactive waste."

"Leaked documents indicate that the US Chamber of Commerce hired a private firm to gather information about the families and children of its progressive political opponents."

"Federal regulators have declined to release emergency response details and worst-case spill estimates for a pipeline system that carries Canadian oil-sands crude to the United States, drawing charges of excessive secrecy from the advocacy group that sought the data."

"The oil and gas industry doesn't want a golden Oscar statuette to grace the mantel of 'Gasland' filmmaker Josh Fox." The movie is critical of the drilling industry.

"An environmental advocacy group filed a lawsuit Monday against the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, saying the federal agency tasked with managing the Rio Grande refused to release status reports, flood maps and plans."

"Filmmakers Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon are up for the best short documentary Oscar this year with The Warriors of Qiugang -- which you can watch in its entirety on Yale Environment 360."

"'Gasland,' a film that turns a harshly critical eye on the perils of natural gas drilling, has earned an Academy Award nomination for best documentary."

"In 2009, a federal judge ruled that a vague potential threat of violence against ranchers was not sufficient cause to withhold GPS data about the killing and capture of wolves in Arizona. The judge in question was John M. Roll of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, one of six killed during Saturday's attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.)."

"A federal appeals board yesterday ordered that Teresa Chambers be reinstated as chief of the U.S. Park Police, seven years after she was fired for telling reporters that her department was understaffed and in need of more funding."

"After spiking upward in response to Copenhagen talks and the 'climategate' uproar, media coverage of climate change plummeted to levels last seen in 2005, according to DailyClimate.org's archives and other media databases."

"Top 10 lists are often relentlessly negative: the 10 most-polluting industrial plants, the 10 most befouled beaches, and so on. The spirit of this list is slightly different: Good or bad, these are environmental moments in 2010 that are most likely to reverberate in the world of environmental news in 2011 and beyond."

News accounts often present a false balance between the central estimate of 5 or 6 degrees Fahrenheit global warming (for doubled carbon dioxide) and much lower estimates put forth by fossil-industry-funded "skeptics" at the fringes of legitimate science. In fact, the skeptics' take should be balanced by the real worst-case estimate from mainstream science: 18 or 20 degrees of warming.

"The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Friday issued long-awaited guidelines to prevent political interference in science and promote transparency at federal agencies, a move that drew cautious praise from activists in the scientific community who had been dismayed by an 18-month delay at the science office."

Fox News Washington Managing Editor Bill Sammon ordered the network's journalists to include language in their stories casting doubt on established climate change science and data, an email memo shows.

"You might think it would be hard to produce a news article that is simultaneously a puffy profile of an important government official, a credulous conduit for her leading opponents, a feeble explanation of the actual political dynamic, and a lackluster treatment of substantive policy issues. But that’s what The Washington Post delivered last week with its story about Lisa Jackson, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the industry interests lining up to battle new regulations that the EPA is considering." Greg Marx criticizes the Post story in Remapping Debate December 7, 2010.