BP To Get Gulf Oil Spill Information Withheld from Public

April 18, 2012–After complaints from BP, the US government agreed to give the company evidence of the basis for its calculation of the flow rate from the stricken Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico. The government will hand over to BP some 100 documents about the size of the 2010 oil spill that have not yet been made public.

New Arizona Law Limits Disclosure of Companies' Environmental Self-Audits

April 18, 2012–The information would still have to be provided to the state. Companies would not gain immunity from enforcement merely by auditing themselves.

Boots on the Ground at Annual SEJ Gathering

April 15, 2012–

Iowa Outlaws Some Undercover Investigations As Other States Mull Bills

March 7, 2012–Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (pictured) signed the so-called "Ag Gag" bill into law March 2, 2012, making it a crime to obtain access to an agricultural facility "under false pretenses" — without defining "false pretenses." Does this apply to hidden cameras? Animal rights activists have often resorted to hidden cameras — and shared with news media photos and videos of shocking cruelty to animals.

Va. Supreme Court Denies Cuccinelli Access to Climate Scientist Emails

March 7, 2012–Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R, pictured at left), who avows himself a global warming skeptic, had sought from the University of Virginia grant applications by former U.Va. climate scientist Michael Mann, creator of the "hockey stick" graph, and emails between Mann and other scientists.

Despite High Court, Navy Keeps WA Town in Dark on Explosion Threat

February 22, 2012–A landmark Supreme Court decision awarded Port Townsend residents the right to know about the potential location of explosives on the Indian Island Naval Magazine near their town. After losing the case, the Defense Department bolstered its legal grounds for secrecy by asking Congress to slip into the 2012 Defense Authorization an amendment creating a new statutory exemption to FOIA for the DOD.  

SacBee Wins Access to Forest-Fire Documents

February 8, 2012–A federal judge ruled that once the documents — depositions of US Forest Service employees about a 2007 forest fire in California that burned tens of thousands of acres — had been entered into court records as part of the evidence discovery process, they were presumptively public records and had to remain that way.  

Lejeune Secrecy May Have Caused Dead Marines

January 25, 2012–CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has been investigating a Navy cover-up of cancer-causing drinking water at its Lejeune, NC, base. Now, Project on Government Oversight has released a January 5, 2012, letter from Marine Major General J.A. Kessler asking ATSDR to redact its report in the name of "force protection."

Obama Vows Disclosure of Toxic Fracking Secrets on Federal Land

January 25, 2012–Most current fracking operations happen on non-federal lands. But on federal lands, things are different — Obama intends to require disclosure of fluids as a condition of new leases for fracking on federal lands. If it takes place, this could push the ingredient lists further into the open.

Burning Rivers

January 15, 2012–