USGS Minerals Report: A Tale of Economy and Environment

03/03/2010 – Many story leads are tucked away in this 196-page report: recession impacts from drops in extraction and consumption, increases in importation of key materials, insights on stories related to climate change and air pollution, and much more. 

Study Suggests Important Tradeoffs for Algae Biofuel

02/17/2010 – University of Virginia researchers find algae-based biofuel uses more energy and water and emits more greenhouse gases than other biofuel sources. However, algae has a high energy yield, and growing it wouldn't significantly affect food crops.

EPA Reveals More High-Hazard Coal-Ash Sites

02/10/2010 – Disclosure of 22 electric-utility plans for handling coal-ash waste is a good start... but EPA also released the identities of some 40 more — previously undisclosed — scary ash impoundments.

MIT Crowdsources "Landmen" Reports on Oil, Natural Gas Agents

02/03/2010 – Billed as "a resource to support citizens negotiating with big energy," this brand new Center for Future Civic Media service could become a useful tool for energy and environment reporting.

Will Appliance Rebates Match Cash for Clunkers?

02/03/2010 – States and territories are each designing and running their own unique rebate program, with funding from the US DOE for development and implementation.

Will Off-Record White House Meetings with Coal Lobby Stifle Ash Regs?

01/13/2010 – After an October 2009 EPA proposal to regulate coal ash, documents show coal industry officials started meeting with OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and soon EPA announced it was postponing proposal of the coal-ash regulation.

Fossil Fuel Basics: Two Good, Current Primers From CRS

11/25/2009 – The Federation of American Scientists has posted these reports online: "Fossil Fuel Resources: Terminology, Reporting, and Summary" and "Unconventional Gas Shales: Development, Technology, and Policy Issues."

Coal-Ash Disposal Remains A Front-Burner Issue at EPA

11/11/2009 – Most of the 580-plus coal-ash impoundments and landfills in the U.S. would make a good local environmental story, and the information available on them is growing.

Natural Gas Case Sparks Change in Air Pollution Assessments

11/11/2009 – Dogging the resulting developments of a new EPA policy could lead to many stories that focus on both the specific cases and the underlying principle of cumulative assessments of pollutants.

At Los Alamos, Secrecy Is the Opposite of Safety

11/04/2009 – The U.S. Department of Energy scrambles to delay a report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board about a significant threat of radiation release from Los Alamos National Laboratory, a citizen watchdog group discovered.