Publication Items

Lapses in Enforcement by Trump's EPA May Yield Local Environment Stories [1]

Enforcement has usually been serious business at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Now it seems many pollution laws are going unpoliced. TipSheet explains how the EPA’s own resources can help investigative reporters find violations, track regulatory actions and uncover nationwide patterns of corporate mismanagement.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Air [3]
Chemicals [4]
Economy & Business [5]
Energy & Fuel [6]
Environmental Health [7]
Environmental Justice [8]
Environmental Politics [9]
Government [10]
Health [11]
Journalism & Media [12]
Laws & Regulations [13]
Pollution [14]
Waste [15]
Water & Oceans [16]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
Visibility:
Public [18]
- Read more about Lapses in Enforcement by Trump's EPA May Yield Local Environment Stories [1]
Tainted Water, Tainted Power — Inside a Hog-Farm Empire [19]

A powerful politician and his family’s groundwater-polluting agricultural business were the focus of an award-winning series that delved into the intersection of politics, power, privilege and regulatory capture. In the latest Inside Story Q&A, journalist Yanqi Xu discusses how the reporting uncovered deep and unexpected impacts on small town economies, water quality and the living conditions of the hog farms’ neighbors.

SEJ Publication Types:
Inside Story [20]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [21]
Chemicals [4]
Economy & Business [5]
Environmental Health [7]
Environmental Justice [8]
Environmental Politics [9]
Health [11]
Journalism & Media [12]
People & Population [22]
Pollution [14]
Waste [15]
Water & Oceans [16]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [23]
Visibility:
Public [18]
- Read more about Tainted Water, Tainted Power — Inside a Hog-Farm Empire [19]
Analysis: Trump Administration Attacks Science, As Environment Suffers [24]

It’s not just scientists who are being lost to the new administration’s extensive firings of federal workers. A Backgrounder Analysis argues it’s the science itself. It’s happening at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but also across agencies that conduct research to protect health and the environment, whether around toxic chemicals or on the battleground of climate change science. A frank look at the reality and what’s being lost for journalists and the communities they serve.

SEJ Publication Types:
Backgrounders [25]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [4]
Climate Change [26]
Economy & Business [5]
Environmental Politics [9]
Environmental Studies [27]
Government [10]
Health [11]
Journalism & Media [12]
Laws & Regulations [13]
Policy [28]
Science [29]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
Visibility:
Public [18]
- Read more about Analysis: Trump Administration Attacks Science, As Environment Suffers [24]
Trump Pursues Broad Attack on Press Freedom [30]

In case you haven’t been keeping track, Donald Trump has been engaging in a multifront offensive against the news media and press freedom more generally. WatchDog Opinion catalogs the transgressions to illustrate how the president is moving to grasp control of White House pool coverage, beguile rich media owners, politicize libel law, kneecap public media and weaponize regulatory agencies.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog [31]
Topics on the Beat:
Economy & Business [5]
Government [10]
Journalism & Media [12]
Laws & Regulations [13]
Policy [28]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
Visibility:
Public [18]
- Read more about Trump Pursues Broad Attack on Press Freedom [30]
Trump Tariffs Blow Up Long U.S.-Canada Environmental Partnership [32]

As trade wars loom with U.S. allies, including our neighbors to the north and south, another kind of long-standing relationship is under threat — the environmental partnership between the United States and Canada. A Backgrounder Analysis examines deep-rooted ties over energy, water and timber. Does the brewing conflict over trade mean the long bonds over the environment have been broken?

SEJ Publication Types:
Backgrounders [25]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [33]
Economy & Business [5]
Energy & Fuel [6]
Environmental Health [7]
Environmental Politics [9]
Fish & Fisheries [34]
Forests [35]
Government [10]
Laws & Regulations [13]
Natural Resources [36]
Policy [28]
Water & Oceans [16]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [37]
Northwest (OR WA) [38]
International [39]
Canada [40]
Mexico [41]
Visibility:
Public [18]
- Read more about Trump Tariffs Blow Up Long U.S.-Canada Environmental Partnership [32]
Follow the Money … for Lobbying State Legislatures [42]

With many states dominated by a few powerful industries — whether oil, mining or agriculture — the influence of campaign dollars can have an outsize effect on legislation, even to the point of corruption, notes the latest Reporter’s Toolbox. So while the U.S. Congress may be languishing, environmental journalists can dig up stories on lobbying at the state level using a powerful data source.

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [43]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [44]
Agriculture [21]
Economy & Business [5]
Energy & Fuel [6]
Environmental Politics [9]
Government [10]
Journalism & Media [12]
Laws & Regulations [13]
Policy [28]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [23]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [45]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [46]
Visibility:
Public [18]
- Read more about Follow the Money … for Lobbying State Legislatures [42]
Trump Pick To Head Secretive Agency Adept at Stifling Info, Regs [47]

A little-known federal office where some say environmental and other regulations go to die may soon be led by a Trump loyalist best known as an indicted co-conspirator in the plot to overthrow the 2020 election. What is OIRA? And who is Trump’s pick to lead the powerful subagency? WatchDog Opinion has answers and some worrying questions, along with resources for reporters to dig further.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog [31]
Topics on the Beat:
Economy & Business [5]
Environmental Politics [9]
Government [10]
Journalism & Media [12]
Laws & Regulations [13]
Policy [28]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
Visibility:
Public [18]
- Read more about Trump Pick To Head Secretive Agency Adept at Stifling Info, Regs [47]
New Angle for Reporting on Oil and Gas Industry — Radioactive Waste [48]

Industry experts and government regulators have long known that radionuclides reside in oil and natural gas. Yet radioactive emissions and waste continue to threaten the lives of workers and community members across the country. Investigative journalist Justin Nobel on the opportunities and urgent need for reporters to drill into a story steeped in questions of accountability, health and justice.

SEJ Publication Types:
Features [49]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [44]
Air [3]
Chemicals [4]
Climate Change [26]
Consumer [33]
Economy & Business [5]
Energy & Fuel [6]
Environmental Health [7]
Environmental Politics [9]
Environmental Studies [27]
Government [10]
Health [11]
Journalism & Media [12]
Laws & Regulations [13]
Natural Resources [36]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [50]
People & Population [22]
Policy [28]
Pollution [14]
Science [29]
Technology [51]
Waste [15]
Water & Oceans [16]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [37]
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [23]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [45]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [52]
Northeast (CT MA ME NH NJ NY RI VT) [53]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [54]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [46]
International [39]
Canada [40]
South America [55]
Visibility:
Public [18]
- Read more about New Angle for Reporting on Oil and Gas Industry — Radioactive Waste [48]
Open Door to Industry for Trump Environmental Agency Appointees [56]

It’s not just the heads of Trump administration environmental agencies who come from the industries they now are entrusted to regulate. The latest TipSheet explains that it’s also the political appointees below them — officials responsible for overseeing air, water, toxic chemicals, Superfund, forests and drilling — who are now likely examples of regulatory capture. A short list. Plus, more from our new Trump 2.0 EJWatch special section [57].

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [21]
Air [3]
Chemicals [4]
Climate Change [26]
Economy & Business [5]
Energy & Fuel [6]
Environmental Politics [9]
Forests [35]
Government [10]
Journalism & Media [12]
Laws & Regulations [13]
Natural Resources [36]
Policy [28]
Pollution [14]
Waste [15]
Water & Oceans [16]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
Visibility:
Public [18]
- Read more about Open Door to Industry for Trump Environmental Agency Appointees [56]
From Oil Boom to Lithium Rush — Reporting the Realities [58]

A coming lithium rush in Arkansas drew the notice of journalist Katie Myers, who used a grant from the Fund for Environmental Journalism to explore whether extraction activities near once-booming energy communities could avoid the economic and environmental impacts of another boom-and-bust cycle for a largely Black region with histories of land dispossession, plantation slavery and Jim Crow segregation. Lessons learned in the latest FEJ StoryLog.

SEJ Publication Types:
FEJ StoryLog [59]
Topics on the Beat:
Economy & Business [5]
Environmental Justice [8]
Environmental Politics [9]
Journalism & Media [12]
Natural Resources [36]
People & Population [22]
Technology [51]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [54]
Visibility:
Public [18]
- Read more about From Oil Boom to Lithium Rush — Reporting the Realities [58]

Pages