Undercover Agents Infiltrated Tar Sands Protest Camp: Documents
TransCanada and Department of Homeland Security keep close eye on activists, FOIA documents reveal."
Source: Earth Island Journal, 08/12/2013
Government
"Report: Wildlife Agency Ignored Whistle-Blowers"
"WASHINGTON -- Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe failed for more than a year to discipline two supervisors who retaliated against whistle-blowers at an Oklahoma field office, the Interior Department's inspector general says in a harshly worded letter that accuses Ashe of damaging the agency's credibility and integrity."
Source: AP, 08/02/2013
EPA Staff Report Contradicts Agency's Agnosticism on Fracking
Here's more evidence of why documents should be leaked to reporters: a Powerpoint obtained by LA Times' Neela Banerjee shows EPA's Region 3 staff argued a year ago for continuing its investigation of fracking pollution around Dimock, PA — as EPA HQ announced it was ending its study of Dimock wells. Now there's an echo in Pavillion, WY.
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Transparency Remains an Issue As McCarthy Takes EPA Helm
House and Senate Republicans made a big deal over EPA "transparency" while McCarthy's nomination was being held up in the Senate, for 130 days. Then on July 9, 2013, the Senate Environment Committee's ranking minority member said he would drop his filibuster threat because EPA had agreed to some of his demands on transparency.
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"In Rapidly Changing Arctic, U.S. Playing Game of Catch-Up"
"With Arctic sea ice thinning and shrinking rapidly in recent years, the U.S. military and scientific agencies are scrambling to cope with the looming prospect of a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean."
Source: Climate Central, 07/23/2013
"EPA Building Named For Bill Clinton; He Says That's Fitting"
"The environment may not come to mind when most people think about former President Bill Clinton, but on Wednesday he defended his legacy as the Environmental Protection Agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., was renamed in his honor."
Source: NPR, 07/18/2013
EPA Science Databases Offer Grist for Environmental Journalists
Science is the key to many environmental stories, and EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) offers a wide range of data tools journalists may find worthwhile to explore.
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NIOSH Withholding Locations Where Fracking Sand Threatens Workers
Studies by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health show silica used in hydraulic fracturing of tight oil and gas formations can endanger workers. But a FOIA request seeking to know the sites where workers had been endangered has met with no response, independent journalist and SEJ member Elizabeth Grossman reports.
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"Keystone XL Environmental Consultant ‘Lied’ About TransCanada Ties"
"WASHINGTON, DC -- The latest environmental assessment of the controversial TransCanada Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is flawed because the contractor hired by the U.S. State Department to write the review 'lied' on its conflict of interest disclosure form about its past work for TransCanada, finds research released Wednesday by two environmental groups."
Source: ENS, 07/12/2013
"Sequestration Sinks Stream Gauges"
"Hydrologist David Evetts drove north from his office in Boise, Idaho, to the former prospecting town of Elk City on May 2. Fifty miles down a dead-end mountain road, he stopped at a gray metal box on a bridge over the South Fork Clearwater River. Reaching inside, he turned off the satellite feed that once relayed the river's water-level measurements from stream gauge number 13337500 every 15 minutes."
Source: High Country News, 07/08/2013
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