Publication Items

Tracking the Trackers in the Trump 2.0 Onslaught [1]

Keeping up with the Trump administration is tricky, given the speed and volume with which the action is unfolding. But the new Reporter’s Toolbox has a handy list of more than a dozen Trump trackers, watching everything from campaign promises and executive orders to litigation launched against the administration. There’s even a tracker watching his time spent on the golf links.

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [3]
Environmental Politics [4]
Government [5]
Journalism & Media [6]
Laws & Regulations [7]
Policy [8]
Science [9]
Region:
National (U.S.) [10]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Tracking the Trackers in the Trump 2.0 Onslaught [1]
‘They’re Back’ — Veteran Journalists on Braving the Specter of Trump’s Return [12]

How can environmental reporters best cover the upheavals of a second Trump administration? SEJournal commissioned a special analysis to draw on the experience of reporters who were there to chronicle the first. Contributing editor Jennifer Weeks spoke to more than half a dozen news veterans of Trump’s earlier environmental and energy policy initiatives, with insights and tips on how to handle what’s ahead.

SEJ Publication Types:
Features [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Air [14]
Chemicals [15]
Climate Change [3]
Disasters [16]
Energy & Fuel [17]
Environmental Justice [18]
Environmental Politics [4]
Government [5]
Journalism & Media [6]
Laws & Regulations [7]
Natural Resources [19]
Policy [8]
Pollution [20]
Water & Oceans [21]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about ‘They’re Back’ — Veteran Journalists on Braving the Specter of Trump’s Return [12]
Environmental Policies Upended, Climate Plans a Casualty As Trump Takes Power [22]

In the overview summary for our “2025 Journalists’ Guide to Environment + Energy” special report, we foresee the very real prospect that environmental protection and energy policies in place, in some cases, for decades could swiftly be swept aside by the Trump administration and a GOP-controlled Congress. Read our analysis [22], plus look back at more than three dozen stories gathered together in our ninth annual guide [23].

SEJ Publication Types:
Special Reports [24]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [3]
Energy & Fuel [17]
Environmental Justice [18]
Environmental Politics [4]
Government [5]
Health [25]
Infrastructure [26]
Journalism & Media [6]
Laws & Regulations [7]
Policy [8]
Pollution [20]
Region:
National (U.S.) [10]
International [27]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Environmental Policies Upended, Climate Plans a Casualty As Trump Takes Power [22]
Open Door to Industry for Trump Environmental Agency Appointees [28]

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 [29].

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [30]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [31]
Air [14]
Chemicals [15]
Climate Change [3]
Economy & Business [32]
Energy & Fuel [17]
Environmental Politics [4]
Forests [33]
Government [5]
Journalism & Media [6]
Laws & Regulations [7]
Natural Resources [19]
Policy [8]
Pollution [20]
Waste [34]
Water & Oceans [21]
Region:
National (U.S.) [10]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Open Door to Industry for Trump Environmental Agency Appointees [28]
From Oil Boom to Lithium Rush — Reporting the Realities [35]

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 [36]
Topics on the Beat:
Economy & Business [32]
Environmental Justice [18]
Environmental Politics [4]
Journalism & Media [6]
Natural Resources [19]
People & Population [37]
Technology [38]
Region:
National (U.S.) [10]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [39]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about From Oil Boom to Lithium Rush — Reporting the Realities [35]
Press Freedom Issues Come to Fore As Trump 2.0 Launches [40]

Salvaging disappearing web pages from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, fostering (and protecting) government whistleblower sources and sussing out the First Amendment’s prospects under the new attorney general at the Justice Department — the latest WatchDog Opinion scans the Trump administration’s information terrain. Plus, check out the latest actions from the Society of Environmental Journalists’ freedom of information efforts [41].

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog [42]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Justice [18]
Environmental Politics [4]
Government [5]
Journalism & Media [6]
Policy [8]
Region:
National (U.S.) [10]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Press Freedom Issues Come to Fore As Trump 2.0 Launches [40]
Communities at Risk Are Climate Stories Too [43]

As environmental journalists scramble to cover dizzying changes in climate and energy policy under the new administration, columnist Yessenia Funes offers an admonition: Do not forget about those whose human rights are being targeted by Trump, and look to connect the changing planet with changes felt by threatened communities. The new Voices of Environmental Justice on exiting the echo chamber.

SEJ Publication Types:
Voices of Environmental Justice [44]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [45]
Climate Change [3]
Disasters [16]
Environmental Justice [18]
Environmental Politics [4]
Government [5]
Health [25]
Journalism & Media [6]
People & Population [37]
Policy [8]
Region:
National (U.S.) [10]
International [27]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Communities at Risk Are Climate Stories Too [43]
Energy-Dominance Exponent Coasts Into Interior [46]

The newly installed Interior Department head, who will manage most federally owned U.S. lands and billions of acres of the continental shelf, hails from a top fossil fuel-producing state and has close oil industry ties, reports the new EJ TransitionWatch. What former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum had to say at his Senate confirmation about U.S. “energy dominance.” Plus, one surprising source of support.

SEJ Publication Types:
EJ TransitionWatch [47]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [3]
Energy & Fuel [17]
Environmental Politics [4]
Government [5]
Natural Resources [19]
Policy [8]
Region:
National (U.S.) [10]
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [48]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Energy-Dominance Exponent Coasts Into Interior [46]
EPA Nominee Heads for Approval, Despite Inexperience [49]

Former Congressman Lee Zeldin, the Trump administration nominee to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has scant expertise in the field and little appeal to environmental groups. But at a Senate hearing earlier this month, the Trump loyalist aimed to score points by confirming the existence of climate change and deflating rumors of an agency move out of the Capital. The latest EJ TransitionWatch takes a look at Zeldin's prospects.

SEJ Publication Types:
EJ TransitionWatch [47]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [3]
Environmental Politics [4]
Government [5]
Policy [8]
Region:
National (U.S.) [10]
Northeast (CT MA ME NH NJ NY RI VT) [50]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about EPA Nominee Heads for Approval, Despite Inexperience [49]
Telling the Stories of the Silent Sentinels [51]

To many, plants are a merely green backdrop, indistinguishable and inconsequential. But, freelancer Karen Mockler says that such “plant blindness” belies an urgent need for our notice. More than a third of the world’s trees and thousands of other plant species face extinction. Their plight — and their many blessings — offer perceptive journalists a wealth of reporting and storytelling opportunities. Mockler on why to write about plants.

SEJ Publication Types:
Features [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [31]
Air [14]
Biodiversity [52]
Climate Change [3]
Environmental Health [53]
Environmental Justice [18]
Environmental Politics [4]
Environmental Studies [54]
Food [55]
Forests [33]
Government [5]
Health [25]
Journalism & Media [6]
Laws & Regulations [7]
Natural Resources [19]
Pollution [20]
Religion, Faith and Spirituality [56]
Science [9]
Water & Oceans [21]
Wildlife [57]
Region:
National (U.S.) [10]
California [58]
Northwest (OR WA) [59]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [60]
International [27]
Canada [61]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Telling the Stories of the Silent Sentinels [51]

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