Publication Items

Read the Congressional Reports You're Not Supposed To Read [1]

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 [3]
Disasters [4]
Energy & Fuel [5]
Health [6]
Laws & Regulations [7]
Military [8]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [9]
Science [10]
Transportation [11]
Wildlife [12]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Read the Congressional Reports You're Not Supposed To Read [1]
House Bills Would Stifle Science at EPA [14]

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 [15]
Laws & Regulations [7]
Science [10]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about House Bills Would Stifle Science at EPA [14]
Free Speech for Science Advisors? EPA Loosens the Leash [16]

EPA has issued a "clarification" of its SAB scientist-muzzling policy, which acknowledges that SAB members are free to talk to reporters — mostly — as long as they are speaking for themselves. Still, the Society of Professional Journalists wrote EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy December 1 declaring their dissatisfaction with the clarification.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [15]
Policy [17]
Science [10]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Free Speech for Science Advisors? EPA Loosens the Leash [16]
House Passes Bill That Helps Silence Science on EPA Advisory Board [18]

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 [19]
Environmental Politics [15]
Laws & Regulations [7]
Science [10]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about House Passes Bill That Helps Silence Science on EPA Advisory Board [18]
Weather Service Offers Better Ways To Track Storm Intensity [20]

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [21]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [4]
Science [10]
Technology [22]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Weather Service Offers Better Ways To Track Storm Intensity [20]
Trendspotting on the Science Beat [23]

"Inside Story" editor Beth Daley interviews Chemical & Engineering News' Cheryl Hogue, who won first place in SEJ’s 13th annual awards for outstanding beat reporting small market, for stories including how microbeads in personal care products impact the environment and how the Small Business Association has become a mouthpiece for industry on chemical issues. Photo: Microbeads on penny; courtesy 5 Gyres Institute.

SEJ Publication Types:
Inside Story [24]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [25]
Science [10]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about Trendspotting on the Science Beat [23]
"The Science Beneath the Surface: A Very Short Guide to the Marcellus Shale" [26]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [27]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [3]
Energy & Fuel [5]
Environmental Health [28]
Health [6]
Pollution [29]
Science [10]
Water & Oceans [30]
Region:
Northeast (CT MA ME NH NJ NY RI VT) [31]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about "The Science Beneath the Surface: A Very Short Guide to the Marcellus Shale" [26]
"The War on Science: Muzzled Scientists and Willful Blindness in Stephen Harper's Canada" [32]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [27]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [15]
Journalism & Media [25]
Science [10]
Region:
Canada [33]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about "The War on Science: Muzzled Scientists and Willful Blindness in Stephen Harper's Canada" [32]
EPA Promises to Look into Muzzling of Advisory Panel Scientists [34]

In an August 15 email, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Chief of Staff Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming said EPA Science Advisor Bob Kavlock would review complaints from journalism (including SEJ) and open-government groups that scientists on EPA advisory panels were being told not to answer news-media or congressional inquiries without permission.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [35]
Policy [17]
Science [10]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about EPA Promises to Look into Muzzling of Advisory Panel Scientists [34]
EPA Muzzles Advisory Board Scientists [36]

Journalism and science groups, including SEJ, protested an August 12, 2014, "don't talk" memo from EPA's chief of staff. The memo makes it clear: members of the agency's many science advisory panels are not to talk to the news media or Congress without permission. Attached to the memo was an "EPA Policy" restricting communications between Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) committee members and parties outside EPA.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [15]
Government [35]
Policy [17]
Science [10]
Visibility:
Public [13]
- Read more about EPA Muzzles Advisory Board Scientists [36]

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