Publication Items

Is Your Audience in an Oil Train Blast Zone? [1]

After a February 16, 2015, oil train derailment and explosion in West Virginia, new concerns have arisen over the public's right to know about the dangers oil trains pose to communities. Now trackside communities have some data and maps to help them protect themselves. Image: AP Photo/ Office of the Governor of West Virginia, Steven Wayne Rotsch.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Environmental Politics [5]
People & Population [6]
Region:
National (U.S.) [7]
California [8]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [9]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [10]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Is Your Audience in an Oil Train Blast Zone? [1]
"The Melting World: A Journey Across America’s Vanishing Glaciers" [12]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [13]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about "The Melting World: A Journey Across America’s Vanishing Glaciers" [12]
"The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism" [14]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [15]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about "The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism" [14]
CRS Reports No Longer Secret, Thanks to FAS Secrecy Project [16]

Congress keeps secret the top-notch nonpartisan explainers from the Congressional Research Service. Or tries to. Thanks to the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project, you can read the reports your tax dollars paid for below.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [4]
Environmental Politics [5]
Laws & Regulations [17]
Natural Resources [18]
Water & Oceans [19]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about CRS Reports No Longer Secret, Thanks to FAS Secrecy Project [16]
Legislators from Both Parties Move FOIA Bills Despite Bank Lobby, FTC [20]

The Senate Judiciary Committee, despite changing from Democrat to Republican control, unanimously approved a FOIA bill (S 337) on February 5, 2015. A similar House bill (HR 653) was introduced February 2 and awaits action by the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [21]
Laws & Regulations [17]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Legislators from Both Parties Move FOIA Bills Despite Bank Lobby, FTC [20]
State Department Hunkers in Secrecy Bunker over Keystone XL [22]

Is the State Department review of whether to permit the Keystone XL pipeline transparent? Not at all. State spokesperson Jen Psaki stiff-armed the Associated Press' Matt Lee February 3, 2015, when he asked whether all eight agencies invited to comment had done so.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [4]
Environmental Politics [5]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about State Department Hunkers in Secrecy Bunker over Keystone XL [22]
Journalism Groups Oppose Photo Fees and Permits in Va. Local Parks [23]

A coalition of journalism and photography groups, including SEJ, objected to requirements for permits and fees for photography in the public parks of Fairfax County, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC. In a February 4, 2015, letter to the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA), the 14 groups asked the agency to revise its rules to protect photojournalists' First Amendment rights.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [24]
Laws & Regulations [17]
Region:
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [9]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Journalism Groups Oppose Photo Fees and Permits in Va. Local Parks [23]
Latest EPA Release of Toxics Data Offers Leads to Environmental Stories [25]

The U.S. EPA has unveiled analysis of its most recent Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data (for 2013). The TRI provides a useful starting point for finding not only local and regional hotspots, but also significant trends.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [26]
Pollution [27]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Latest EPA Release of Toxics Data Offers Leads to Environmental Stories [25]
Canadian Public Not Allowed To Know Kinder Morgan Pipeline Emergency Plan [28]

The expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline in Canada by the multibillion-dollar Houston firm Kinder Morgan is, to say the least, controversial. So it did not help instill public confidence when Canada's National Energy Board on Jan 16, 2015, ruled that Kinder Morgan did not have to make public its emergency response plans for spills and fires.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [29]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Region:
Canada [30]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Canadian Public Not Allowed To Know Kinder Morgan Pipeline Emergency Plan [28]
With Environmental Rules at Stake, Dark Money Set To Flood 2016 U.S. Elections [31]

Are megabucks from fossil fuels and other big industries corrupting the election of federal government officials? The U.S. public has little chance of knowing under current rules that are bringing "dark money" to ascendancy in American politics.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [29]
Environmental Politics [5]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about With Environmental Rules at Stake, Dark Money Set To Flood 2016 U.S. Elections [31]

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