Natural Resources Extraction Transparency Initiative — a Ray of Hope or a Fog of PR?

February 13, 2013–The United States, whose Minerals Management Service simply neglected to collect in-kind offshore oil royalties under President Bush, has yet to prove itself a paragon. Yet now a new Interior Department committee is poised to lecture other countries on how to do it right.

Traveling Florida’s Lost Wildlife Highways

September 15, 2012–In this excerpt from the latest issue of SEJournal (Summer/Fall), freelance writer and photographer Roger Archibald tells the tale of the 2012 Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition, which sought to reclaim a tenuous natural migratory route that the state’s surviving endemic wildlife might once again follow.

Some Unpublished CRS Reports on Environmental Topics: Published

August 8, 2012–Topics of the latest reports, published by the Federation of American Scientists, include Arctic changes, mountaintop mining controversies, pollution control law enforcement, climate change, midnight rulemaking, scientific papers/security risks, oil sands enviro issues, and fracking/drinking water.

PEER Charges Secrecy in Denials of National Park System Status to 3 Trails

July 25, 2012–Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is charging the National Park Service with duplicity for multiple reasons regarding demotion of the North Country, Ice Age, and New England Trails, which collectively span 6,020 miles.

Got Corruption? Data on State Lawmaker Conflicts Hard To Get

July 11, 2012–A large and diverse array of businesses have an interest in the environmental and energy laws that state legislatures consider: including coal, oil, plastics, chemicals, mining, forest products, and others. The possible financial stake lawmakers may have in the bills before them is fertile ground for investigation. Here's help in finding story ideas.

Enviros Challenge Transparency of Virginia Uranium Mining Deliberations

June 13, 2012–A company wants to mine Virginia's major uranium deposit so the state formed a multi-agency panel to study ending the three-decade ban on uranium mining. That panel hired a consulting firm that critics say was stacked with experts affiliated with the nuclear industry.

Data.gov Keeps on Giving Gifts to Gumshoe Reporters

May 30, 2012–The federal Data.gov, while not perfect, has grown over three years especially strong in datasets from federal agencies that deal with the environment, energy, natural resources, health, and science. Many of them are downloadable, so that you can crunch them on your own computer. Several are map layers or geo-tagged in some way. See a few randomly chosen examples here.

CRS Reports: You Paid for Them — You May As Well Read Them

May 2, 2012–Here are some recent reports by the Congressional Research Service related to the environment/energy beat. Congress does not release them to the public. We again thank the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project for doing so. 

Data Accumulates Slowly on What's in Fracking Fluid

April 18, 2012–If you have a fracking story in your beat, getting information about what's in the controversial fracking fluids may be like pulling teeth. But there are a few resources that can help, such as the "FracFocus" chemical disclosure registry.

Boots on the Ground at Annual SEJ Gathering

April 15, 2012–