Why Does Congress Keep CRS Reports Secret? One Possible Answer

January 2, 2013–Congress' motives for the nondisclosure bear scrutiny. Is it merely to sound smart or hog the glory of releasing them? A recent report by Manuel Quinones in E&E Daily suggests another motive: fiddling with inconvenient truths (or untruths).

Coal Slurry Database May Help Reporters Find Problem Impoundments

December 12, 2012–A fatal November 30, 2012, collapse of part of a coal-slurry impoundment in West Virginia served as a reminder of safety issues that may not be adequately regulated in some states and localities. You can locate local coal-slurry impoundments and information on their status with an online public database.

NRC Board Orders Calif. Nuclear Plant To Turn Over Withheld Records

December 12, 2012–Is the public entitled to see documents that may bear on the safety of a for-profit utility's plan to restart the flaw-stricken San Onofre nuclear plant in California? Maybe not. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled the utility must turn the documents over to the board — but currently plans to keep them secret from the public.

Pennsylvania Newspapers Get Break in Fracking Disclosure Case

December 12, 2012–The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was joined by the Washington (PA) Observer-Reporter in a suit to unseal records of the July 2011 settlement of a case in which a family had sued four natural gas companies over damages they claimed were caused by hydraulic fracturing. The appeals court said a lower court had erred in throwing out the newspapers' case.

SEJ Backs Member Threatened by Interior Secretary

December 12, 2012–The Society of Environmental Journalists wrote Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about the Election Day incident of attempted intimidation in Colorado, when the Secretary threatened to "punch out" SEJ member Dave Philipps, senior investigative reporter with the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Access to Fracking Info — Still Bad — Improved by Non-Gov Web Initiatives

November 28, 2012–A geeky nonprofit watchdog group has done what government and private industry have failed to do; the group, SkyTruth, has made data about the ingredients in fracking fluid easily accessible to the public.

DHS and CDC Refuse To Give House Panel Docs on Failed BioWatch Program

November 28, 2012–After wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on a non-working program aimed at protecting the US public from biological attack, the Department of Homeland Security and Centers for Disease Control may be refusing to give documents on the program to House Energy Committee investigators. 

GOPers Attack EPA's Jackson for Alias E-Mail Account

November 28, 2012–Critics say Jackson's use of an e-mail account using her dog's name is an effort to hide agency business. Agency officials maintain the practice is innocent.

Obama Signs Whistleblower Bill

November 28, 2012–President Obama on November 27, 2012, signed into law a bill beefing up previously flimsy protections for federal employee whistleblowers who disclose waste, fraud, and abuse. The legislation was supported by good-government watchdog groups.

Undercover Muckraking a Lonely, Dangerous Job

November 28, 2012–Humaneitarian's Caroline Abels relates the story of today's muckrakers going undercover in investigations of American factory farms conducted by the Humane Society of the U.S.