Publication Items

Sunshine Week 2014: Hard Fight for Open Government Far from Won [1]

Spin control and the security state may have taken large bites out of the First Amendment in recent years, but the pushback celebration known as Sunshine Week has never been more robust. Pushing for open government is a trend. Nowhere is this more true than on the environment and energy beats.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [3]
Environmental Politics [4]
Journalism & Media [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Sunshine Week 2014: Hard Fight for Open Government Far from Won [1]
Feds Raise Fee Barrier to FOIA about Shipbreaking of US Ship Abroad [7]

Maritime historian Jon Ottman has been denied a fee waiver on records he's requested about an aged U.S. Coast Guard cutter that was auctioned to a shipbreaker in Mexico without, he says, being thoroughly checked for toxic and hazardous materials. Photo: America's Queen — Coast Guard Cutter Storis, [8] courtesy US Coast Guard.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [9]
Environmental Politics [4]
Region:
Mexico [10]
Alaska and Hawaii [11]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Feds Raise Fee Barrier to FOIA about Shipbreaking of US Ship Abroad [7]
CDC, EPA Respond to SEJ Complaints about Press Office Obstacles [12]

After the SEJ and the Society of Professional Journalists complained January 20, 2014, about federal agency press office stonewalling in the face of the Charleston, WV, drinking water disaster, the agencies responded. Read the text of their replies here.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [9]
Environmental Politics [4]
Disasters [13]
Region:
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [14]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about CDC, EPA Respond to SEJ Complaints about Press Office Obstacles [12]
WikiLeaks Exposes Secret Obama Trade Pact on Environment [15]

Corporate lobby groups? Yeah, they can read it. Big campaign donors? They can read it, too. But can the news media and U.S. public read it? — No way! That would be un-American. Welcome to the secretly negotiated trade treaty known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Planning & Growth [16]
Environmental Politics [4]
Environmental Health [17]
Economy & Business [18]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about WikiLeaks Exposes Secret Obama Trade Pact on Environment [15]
"Peril in the Ponds: Deformed Frogs, Politics, and a Biologist’s Quest" [19]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [20]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [21]
Environmental Politics [4]
Environmental Studies [22]
Health [23]
Wildlife [24]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about "Peril in the Ponds: Deformed Frogs, Politics, and a Biologist’s Quest" [19]
Environment Canada Denied 22% of Requests for Scientist Interviews in 2013 [25]

The startling admission only bolsters critics who say the conservative Harper government is suppressing science which does not support its politics — for example, its policies on global warming or oil sands.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Science [26]
Environmental Politics [4]
Region:
Canada [27]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Environment Canada Denied 22% of Requests for Scientist Interviews in 2013 [25]
Database: Fracking Yields Gushers of Cash to Congress Power Brokers [28]

A study issued by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) using campaign contribution data found the fracking industry gave increasingly more in districts hosting fracking than in nonfracking districts between 2004 and 2012.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [4]
Energy & Fuel [3]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Database: Fracking Yields Gushers of Cash to Congress Power Brokers [28]
White House Secrecy Helps Politics Subvert Environmental Health at OMB [29]

It's true. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) helps well-heeled industry lobbyists thwart rules to protect public safety and health. Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin proves it with documents and insider interviews showing how election politics trumped open government, regulatory law, and public health in the run-up to the 2012 election.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [4]
Environmental Health [17]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about White House Secrecy Helps Politics Subvert Environmental Health at OMB [29]
Spying on Environmental Journos No Longer Just Paranoid Fantasy [30]

Industry groups and government agencies are outsourcing the job of spying confidentially on environmental journalists to firms that hire former NSA, CIA, and FBI investigators. You are not supposed to know this. For example, Wikileaks recently released documentation on for-hire intelligence agency Stratfor's spying on award-winning ProPublica reporter Abrahm Lustgarten.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [4]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Spying on Environmental Journos No Longer Just Paranoid Fantasy [30]
Senate GOPers Seek To Hide Silica Science Funding [31]

OSHA's proposed silica rule "requests" (not requires) that commenters state clearly who paid for any research they cite and declare whether there may be possible conflicts of interest or whether the funder of the research may have influenced its findings. But 16 Senate Republicans have complained of OSHA's request for funding disclosure.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Science [26]
Laws & Regulations [32]
Health [23]
Environmental Politics [4]
Energy & Fuel [3]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Senate GOPers Seek To Hide Silica Science Funding [31]

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