Publication Items

Groups Sue EPA for Data on Toxic Fracking Chemicals [1]

The industry got Congress in 2005 to block the public from knowing about these chemicals, which can end up in people's drinking water. But the enviro groups, led by the Environmental Integrity Project, want to use a different law to help unlock the data.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Pollution [6]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Groups Sue EPA for Data on Toxic Fracking Chemicals [1]
Arrest of Four Near Hog Farm Tests Utah's "Ag Gag" Law [8]

One way to deal with bad press is to make it illegal. Exposés of inhumane conditions at feedlots and slaughterhouses are being made illegal by state legislatures that pass "ag gag" laws. Now a case in Utah is challenging whether industrial agriculture's claims of secrecy trump the eating public's right to know. Image: Sows in 7'x2' Smithfield Foods gestation crates. By Humane Society of the US [CC], 2010. [9]

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [10]
Agriculture [11]
Consumer [12]
Health [13]
Journalism & Media [14]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Pollution [6]
Region:
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [15]
Northwest (OR WA) [16]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Arrest of Four Near Hog Farm Tests Utah's "Ag Gag" Law [8]
Foreign Agents May Cloak Environmental Stories [17]

Environmental journalists can find important stories using data about lobbyists registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to work for foreign firms and governments. The Sunlight Foundation and other groups have compiled some of the information into a searchable online database — a starting point for finding enviro and energy stories.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Economy & Business [18]
Environmental Politics [19]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Region:
International [20]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Foreign Agents May Cloak Environmental Stories [17]
Read the Congressional Reports You're Not Supposed To Read [21]

Journalists hurrying to get up to speed on environmental or energy issues can get objective background from reports by the Congressional Research Service (an arm of the Library of Congress), which does not release them to the taxpaying public that funded them. We thank the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project for publishing them.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [22]
Disasters [23]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Health [13]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Military [24]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [25]
Science [26]
Transportation [27]
Wildlife [28]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Read the Congressional Reports You're Not Supposed To Read [21]
House Bills Would Stifle Science at EPA [29]

Three GOP-backed House bills attacking science at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are unlikely to become law in the current Congress — or the next. The Obama administration has threatened to veto all three, which the House passed in November along party lines. None is likely to muster enough support to override a veto.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [19]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Science [26]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about House Bills Would Stifle Science at EPA [29]
FOIA Bill Could Still Pass Lame Duck [30]

There is still hope (and perhaps time) for this Congress to pass a bill strengthening the Freedom of Information Act. The Senate Judiciary seems likely to mark up a revised FOIA reform bill Thursday, November 20, 2014. After that will come a push to bring it to the Senate floor and eventually reconcile with a FOIA bill already passed by the House.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [31]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about FOIA Bill Could Still Pass Lame Duck [30]
House Passes Bill That Helps Silence Science on EPA Advisory Board [32]

On a 229-191 party-line vote, the GOP-controlled House passed a bill reining in EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) — authorizing conflicts of interest for its members and gagging them in communications about subjects they are expert on. Science integrity and environmental groups had opposed the bill, which the House passed on November 18, 2014.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Economy & Business [18]
Environmental Politics [19]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Science [26]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about House Passes Bill That Helps Silence Science on EPA Advisory Board [32]
BLM FOIA Office "Fails To Provide Public Records" [33]

The growing number of threats and assaults against employees of federal land agencies in the West is certainly the public's business. But efforts to document it by High Country News using the Freedom of Information Act have been thwarted by the Bureau of Land Management's central FOIA office. Veteran journalist Ray Ring tells the sad tale in HCN.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Studies [34]
Journalism & Media [14]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Region:
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [15]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about BLM FOIA Office "Fails To Provide Public Records" [33]
SEJ Urges Obama to Take Stand on Bipartisan FOIA Bills [35]

The Society of Environmental Journalists wrote President Barack Obama October 23, 2014, urging him to take a strong position supporting legislation that would strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Bipartisan FOIA improvements may be one of the few pieces of legislation with a chance to clear the lame duck 113th Congress before control shifts to Republicans in 2015.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [31]
Journalism & Media [14]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about SEJ Urges Obama to Take Stand on Bipartisan FOIA Bills [35]
Chief Tidwell Directs Forest Service: No Permits, Fees for Journos [36]

"News coverage on [National Forest System] lands is protected by the Constitution," wrote U.S. Forest Service Chief Thomas L. Tidwell in a November 4, 2014, memo to agency leaders, "and it is our responsibility to safeguard this right on the lands we manage for all Americans. Journalists provide a critical public service, and this agency will ensure their access in the pursuit of that public service."
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Forests [37]
Journalism & Media [14]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Natural Resources [38]
Policy [39]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Chief Tidwell Directs Forest Service: No Permits, Fees for Journos [36]

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