Publication Items

PHMSA Won't Disclose Restart Plan for Arkansas Pegasus Pipeline [1]

Exxon had said it was planning to restart the aging pipeline — which was given to seam ruptures — by the end of March. But the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has so far refused requests to make public the restart plan. Elizabeth Douglass wrote about PHMSA's secrecy in InsideClimate News. Photo: The Pegasus pipeline, exposed and suspended in Houston County, 7 miles NW of Crockett, TX, in May 2013. Credit: Safe Community Alliance.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [3]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about PHMSA Won't Disclose Restart Plan for Arkansas Pegasus Pipeline [1]
AP Probe: Keeping Explosive Chemicals Secret May Not Make People Safer [6]

Aftershocks of the April 17, 2013, ammonium nitrate explosion in West, Texas, continue — including investigations by news organizations as well as state and federal agencies. A major multistate investigative project by the Associated Press could only get data for 28 of the 50 states, but within those states it found that more than 600,000 people live within a typical blast zone and more had family in schools and hospitals within one.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
People & Population [7]
Disasters [8]
Chemicals [9]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about AP Probe: Keeping Explosive Chemicals Secret May Not Make People Safer [6]
"Continental Divide: Wildlife, People, and the Border Wall" [10]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [11]
Topics on the Beat:
Biodiversity [12]
Journalism & Media [13]
People & Population [7]
Planning & Growth [14]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [3]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [4]
Mexico [15]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about "Continental Divide: Wildlife, People, and the Border Wall" [10]
Toolbox: Database Helps Track Broken Promises on Parkland Conservation [16]

Seattle-based InvestigateWest published a feature package last summer documenting illegal parkland conversions in Michigan, New York City, and Oklahoma. They could not cover all the other states — that was left for you to do, with the assistance of their database of some 40,000 federal grants under the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Planning & Growth [14]
Natural Resources [17]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Government [19]
Economy & Business [20]
Region:
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [21]
Northeast (CT MA ME NH NJ NY RI VT) [22]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Toolbox: Database Helps Track Broken Promises on Parkland Conservation [16]
Texas Fertilizer Explosion Re-Raises Buried Hazmat Disclosure Issues [23]

News stories about the April 17, 2013, explosion of a fertilizer storage plant in the town of West, Texas that killed 15 people have so far focused on the plant operator's risk-disclosure failure, instead of the likely fact that government agencies knew the nature and magnitude of the hazard — or should have known. The bigger story is the regulatory failure — and industry's decades-long campaign to keep the public ignorant of the threats they face. Photo: AP/LM Otero/Available through Creative Commons.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Planning & Growth [14]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Environmental Politics [24]
Disasters [8]
Chemicals [9]
Agriculture [25]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Texas Fertilizer Explosion Re-Raises Buried Hazmat Disclosure Issues [23]
Journalists Detained at Texas Protest of Keystone XL Pipeline [26]

The two New York Times journalists were working on private land with the permission of the landowner, near Winnsboro in northeast Texas, when they were detained, according to the online energy publication FuelFix. The 78-year-old owner of the land, who objects to the routing of the pipeline across it, was also arrested for trespassing on her own land.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [13]
Energy & Fuel [27]
Activism [28]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Journalists Detained at Texas Protest of Keystone XL Pipeline [26]
Colin McDonald Puts Boots on the Ground [29]

Nadia White interviews San Antonio Express-News reporter Colin McDonald, who's built his newspaper career at the intersection of environmental news and adventure writing.

SEJ Publication Types:
Inside Story [31]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [13]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Colin McDonald Puts Boots on the Ground [29]
Boots on the Ground at Annual SEJ Gathering [32]

SEJ Publication Types:
SEJ News [33]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [34]
Economy & Business [20]
Energy & Fuel [27]
Environmental Politics [24]
Food [35]
Journalism & Media [13]
Natural Resources [17]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [36]
People & Population [7]
Planning & Growth [14]
Water & Oceans [37]
Wildlife [38]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Boots on the Ground at Annual SEJ Gathering [32]
Group Sues Interior for Failure to Disclose Correspondence with Wind Industry [39]

The American Bird Conservancy has gone to court after the Interior Department stonewalled its Freedom-of-Information-Act requests for correspondence between feds and the wind industry on how potential wind projects in 10 states might affect birds and bats.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Wildlife [38]
Environmental Politics [24]
Energy & Fuel [27]
Biodiversity [12]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [4]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [3]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [40]
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [41]
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [21]
California [42]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Group Sues Interior for Failure to Disclose Correspondence with Wind Industry [39]
New Arizona Law Limits Disclosure of Companies' Environmental Self-Audits [43]

The information would still have to be provided to the state. Companies would not gain immunity from enforcement merely by auditing themselves.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [18]
Economy & Business [20]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about New Arizona Law Limits Disclosure of Companies' Environmental Self-Audits [43]

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