Wildfire a Key to Local Environmental Stories

June 22, 2011–Rarely will you learn from national fire coverage the names of people whose homes the fire has destroyed or threatened. Or what flooding and wildlife loss may follow a fire. That is covered by local media or not at all. Be prepared with these resources to help you.

EPA Releases Coal Ash Pond Survey in Database Form

May 18, 2011–The spreadsheet covers 676 coal combustion waste impoundments at 240 facilities — making it much easier to cover the issue. After assessing many ponds, EPA rated at least 50 of the ponds as having high hazard potential.

NRC Publishes List of FOIA Requests Related to Japan Nuke Meltdown

May 18, 2011–By publishing the list promptly, NRC lived up to the "reading room" provisions of FOIA — which require agencies to actively publish information likely to be the subject of multiple FOIA requests. As a reporter, see what your competitors are doing. As a FOIA requester, you may learn a lot about how to write a FOIA letter that is realistic yet effective.

NOAA Provides Quick Access to Tornado Information

May 11, 2011–Get details on breaking and recent developments, along with big-picture perspective, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's tornado website.

Ocean Issues Highlighted at 'Blue Vision' Summit May 20-23 in DC

May 11, 2011–The event will cover everything from the Gulf of Mexico's struggle to recover from the BP oil spill to protection of over-exploited commercial fish stocks … to ocean acidification, marine protected areas, offshore energy, and coastal ecosystem restoration.

BP Blowout Anniversary: "What's Under Elmer's Island?"

April 20, 2011–Denial of news media access to Gulf beaches has been an issue since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. There's tussling over access to (and interpretation of) scientific information on possible impacts of the spill on the Gulf ecosystem. And The Guardian obtained >30,000 pages of BP in-house memos FOIA'd by Greenpeace, which suggest BP was working hard to influence the results of the research it was paying for.

Blowout in the Gulf: The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America

April 15, 2011–

BP Still Keeps Media from Covering Damage on Gulf Coast

April 6, 2011–The intrepid Mac McClelland, who covered the spill and secrecy at its peak for Mother Jones, went back to see if anything had changed. But BP's cops tried to stop her.

Floods Threaten Midwest and Elsewhere As Thaw Progresses

March 30, 2011–Get your flood resources here, from the National Weather Service's National Hydrologic Assessment, FEMA's "Flood Hazard" webpage and Flood Insurance Rate Maps, to the National Flood Insurance Program's "Media Resources" site, NOAA's "Floods Monitor", USGS' "WaterWatch," advice from the CDC, and more.

Japan Nuclear Crisis: Non-Disclosure Hides Multitude of Sins

March 23, 2011–As a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear plant continues to spew radiation into the environment, journalists and people across the world are getting an unwelcome lesson in how secrecy can threaten people's health and safety. A New York Times team finally on March 16 did the story on the withholding of information. Read their coverage, as well as others.