Publication Items

"Nature’s Trust: Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age" [1]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [3]
Visibility:
Public [4]
- Read more about "Nature’s Trust: Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age" [1]
News Media Coalition Appeals Gag Orders in Blankenship Case [5]

After a judge refused to reverse most of the secrecy ruling around the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine disaster caused by Massey Energy's safety violations, including indictment of the company's former CEO, media outlets appealed. Now a coalition of many more media groups, led by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, have filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing the secrecy ruling as unconstitutional.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [6]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [7]
Laws & Regulations [3]
Natural Resources [8]
Region:
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [9]
Visibility:
Public [4]
- Read more about News Media Coalition Appeals Gag Orders in Blankenship Case [5]
Groups FOIA Federal Rules for Allowing Petroleum Export Ban Exceptions [10]

For decades, U.S. politicians have made energy independence a patriotic platitude — with one result being a ban on exporting crude oil produced in the U.S. Now some oil companies are getting exceptions to the export ban for a product called "condensate," and the Commerce Department won't say why. So a coalition of environmental groups have filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [6]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [11]
Government [12]
Laws & Regulations [3]
Visibility:
Public [4]
- Read more about Groups FOIA Federal Rules for Allowing Petroleum Export Ban Exceptions [10]
Sunshine Week Highlights Open Government March 15-21 [13]

News media and open-government groups across the country will field events March 15-21, 2015, to emphasize the importance of freedom of information to democratic government. Here is a short preliminary list of some major Sunshine Week events already scheduled.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [6]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [12]
Visibility:
Public [4]
- Read more about Sunshine Week Highlights Open Government March 15-21 [13]
Is Your Audience in an Oil Train Blast Zone? [14]

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 [6]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [7]
Energy & Fuel [11]
Environmental Politics [15]
People & Population [16]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
California [18]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [9]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [19]
Visibility:
Public [4]
- Read more about Is Your Audience in an Oil Train Blast Zone? [14]
"The Melting World: A Journey Across America’s Vanishing Glaciers" [20]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [2]
Visibility:
Public [4]
- Read more about "The Melting World: A Journey Across America’s Vanishing Glaciers" [20]
"The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism" [21]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [22]
Visibility:
Public [4]
- Read more about "The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism" [21]
CRS Reports No Longer Secret, Thanks to FAS Secrecy Project [23]

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 [6]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [11]
Environmental Politics [15]
Laws & Regulations [3]
Natural Resources [8]
Water & Oceans [24]
Visibility:
Public [4]
- Read more about CRS Reports No Longer Secret, Thanks to FAS Secrecy Project [23]
Legislators from Both Parties Move FOIA Bills Despite Bank Lobby, FTC [25]

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 [6]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [12]
Laws & Regulations [3]
Visibility:
Public [4]
- Read more about Legislators from Both Parties Move FOIA Bills Despite Bank Lobby, FTC [25]
State Department Hunkers in Secrecy Bunker over Keystone XL [26]

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 [6]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [11]
Environmental Politics [15]
Visibility:
Public [4]
- Read more about State Department Hunkers in Secrecy Bunker over Keystone XL [26]

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