EJToday is SEJ's selection of new and outstanding stories on environmental topics in print and on the air, updated every weekday. SEJ also offers a free e-mailed digest of the day's EJToday postings, called SEJ-beat. SEJ members are subscribed automatically, but may opt out here. Non-members may subscribe here. EJToday is also available via RSS feed. Please see Editorial Guidelines for EJToday content.
"Remember When the IRS Targeted Environmental Organizations?"
Earth Island Journal, 05/20/2013"This isn’t the first time the agency has investigated political groups – just the first time it’s become a full-blown controversy."
"DOE Gives Green Light To Controversial Natural Gas Export Project"
Hill/E2 Wire, 05/20/2013"The Energy Department (DOE) on Friday approved a controversial application allowing liquefied natural-gas exports to nations that lack a free-trade agreement with the United States."
"Marine Daughter Seeks Dignity for 'Devil Dog Pups'"
AP, 05/20/2013"JACKSONVILLE, N.C. -- As she flipped through the cemetery register, Mary Blakely's eyes filled with tears. On line after line, the entry read simply 'Baby Boy' or 'Baby Girl,' followed by a surname and a burial date."
Chiefs Walk Out on State Dept. Keystone XL Consultation Meeting
Indian Country Today, 05/20/2013"Elders and chiefs of at least 10 sovereign nations walked out of a meeting with U.S. State Department officials in Rapid City, South Dakota, on Thursday May 16 in which the government was attempting to engage in tribal consultation over the Keystone XL pipeline."
"A Black Mound of Canadian Oil Waste Is Rising Over Detroit"
NY Times, 05/20/2013"WINDSOR, Ontario — Assumption Park gives residents of this city lovely views of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline. Lately they’ve been treated to another sight: a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block on the other side of the Detroit River."
"Wells Dry, Fertile Plains Turn to Dust"
NY Times, 05/20/2013"HASKELL COUNTY, Kan. — Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into a half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland. He struck an artery of water so prodigious that he could pump 1,600 gallons to the surface every minute."
"The Hunt for Endocrine Disruptors"
Wisconsin Ctr for Investigative Reporting, 05/20/2013"Experts say Wisconsin lakes’ chemical cocktail likely similar to Minnesota's"
"Some of My Best Friends Are Germs"
NY Times Magazine, 05/20/2013"I can tell you the exact date that I began to think of myself in the first-person plural — as a superorganism, that is, rather than a plain old individual human being."
Analysis: "Without Water, Revolution"
NY Times, 05/20/2013"This Syrian disaster is like a superstorm. It’s what happens when an extreme weather event, the worst drought in Syria’s modern history, combines with a fast-growing population and a repressive and corrupt regime and unleashes extreme sectarian and religious passions, fueled by money from rival outside powers — Iran and Hezbollah on one side, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar on the other, each of which have an extreme interest in its Syrian allies’ defeating the other’s allies — all at a time when America, in its post-Iraq/Afghanistan phase, is extremely wary of getting involved."
"After Deadly Chemical Plant Disasters, There's Little Action"
NPR, 05/20/2013"You might think that everything would have changed for the chemicals industry on April 16, 1947. That was the day of the Texas City Disaster, the worst industrial accident in U.S. history. A ship loaded with ammonium nitrate — the same chemical that appears to have caused the disaster last month in West, Texas — exploded. The ship sparked a chain reaction of blasts at chemical facilities onshore, creating what a newsreel at the time called "a holocaust that baffles description."
"Senate Panel Advances Nominee for E.P.A."
NY Times, 05/17/2013"WASHINGTON — A sharply divided Senate committee on Thursday approved the nomination of Gina McCarthy to serve as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
"U.S.: Disclose Fracking Chemicals on Public Land"
AP, 05/17/2013"The Obama administration said Thursday it will require companies that drill for oil and natural gas on federal lands to publicly disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations. The new "fracking" rule replaces a draft proposed last year that was withdrawn amid industry complaints that federal regulation could hinder an ongoing boom in natural gas production.
"America's Climate Refugees"
Guardian, 05/17/2013"The people of Newtok, on the west coast of Alaska and about 400 miles south of the Bering Strait that separates the state from Russia, are living a slow-motion disaster that will end, very possibly within the next five years, with the entire village being washed away." ... "Climate change has accelerated the normal process of erosion along Alaska's rivers and coasts - especially near the shores of the Bering and Arctic seas."
"Senate Confirms Physicist Moniz as Energy Chief"
AP, 05/17/2013"The Senate has unanimously confirmed President Obama's nominee to lead the Energy Department."
"Analysis: Obama Climate Agenda Faces Supreme Court Reckoning"
Reuters, 05/17/2013"With a barrage of legal briefs, a coalition of business groups and Republican-leaning states are taking their fight against Obama administration climate change regulations to the U.S. Supreme Court."

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