Publication Items

A Town Derailed, a Trust Obtained [1]

The devastating 2023 East Palestine, Ohio, toxic train derailment left a legacy of illness and a town torn by competing understandings of the contamination’s aftereffects. A yearlong reporting initiative with photojournalist Rebecca Kiger and Time magazine writer Alejandro de la Garza worked to gain the community’s confidence and tell its story. Their prize-winning feature, in the latest Inside Story Q&A.

SEJ Publication Types:
Inside Story [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Air [3]
Chemicals [4]
Disasters [5]
Environmental Health [6]
Environmental Justice [7]
Health [8]
Journalism & Media [9]
People & Population [10]
Pollution [11]
Science [12]
Transportation [13]
Water & Oceans [14]
Region:
National (U.S.) [15]
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [16]
Visibility:
Public [17]
- Read more about A Town Derailed, a Trust Obtained [1]
Top Environment and Energy Topics To Watch in 2026 [18]

Explore our 10th annual Journalists’ Guide to Environment + Energy, as we scour the beat to identify 15 top stories to put on your radar for 2026. Our updated format for the special report provides a quick read and a broad scope — with insights on climate change and environmental justice, bird and insect declines, data centers and deep sea mining, deregulation and PFAS and much more. Get started here [18].

SEJ Publication Types:
SEJ News [19]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [20]
Agriculture [21]
Air [3]
Biodiversity [22]
Chemicals [4]
Climate Change [23]
Disasters [5]
Economy & Business [24]
Energy & Fuel [25]
Environmental Health [6]
Environmental Justice [7]
Environmental Politics [26]
Environmental Studies [27]
Fish & Fisheries [28]
Forests [29]
Government [30]
Health [8]
Infrastructure [31]
Journalism & Media [9]
Laws & Regulations [32]
Military [33]
Natural Resources [34]
Policy [35]
Pollution [11]
Science [12]
Technology [36]
Waste [37]
Water & Oceans [14]
Wildlife [38]
Region:
National (U.S.) [15]
Alaska and Hawaii [39]
California [40]
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [16]
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [41]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [42]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [43]
Northeast (CT MA ME NH NJ NY RI VT) [44]
Northwest (OR WA) [45]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [46]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [47]
International [48]
Visibility:
Public [17]
- Read more about Top Environment and Energy Topics To Watch in 2026 [18]
Citizen Pollution Monitors Face Industry Pushback, Legal Threats [49]

A steep decline in the enforcement of environmental laws means the monitoring of pollution by citizens is more important than ever. But as the latest TipSheet notes, some states have passed laws that severely constrain the use of citizen monitoring or the sharing of findings. Get the backstory, along with top reporting angles and resources for finding monitoring in your area.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [50]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [20]
Air [3]
Environmental Health [6]
Environmental Justice [7]
Environmental Politics [26]
Environmental Studies [27]
Government [30]
Health [8]
Journalism & Media [9]
Laws & Regulations [32]
Pollution [11]
Science [12]
Water & Oceans [14]
Region:
National (U.S.) [15]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [46]
Visibility:
Public [17]
- Read more about Citizen Pollution Monitors Face Industry Pushback, Legal Threats [49]
Orphans and Zombies — Reporting on Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells Across the Country [51]

For more than a century, oil and gas companies have been drilling — and abandoning — wells across the country, leaving hundreds of thousands to potentially leak pollutants into the air, water and soil. Climate and environment reporter Martha Pskowski looks at how funding and regulatory issues are impacting efforts to identify and plug these wells, and offers resources for drilling into their story.

SEJ Publication Types:
Features [52]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [21]
Air [3]
Climate Change [23]
Economy & Business [24]
Energy & Fuel [25]
Environmental Health [6]
Government [30]
Health [8]
Journalism & Media [9]
Laws & Regulations [32]
Natural Resources [34]
Policy [35]
Pollution [11]
Technology [36]
Water & Oceans [14]
Wildlife [38]
Region:
National (U.S.) [15]
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [16]
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [41]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [42]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [43]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [47]
Visibility:
Public [17]
- Read more about Orphans and Zombies — Reporting on Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells Across the Country [51]
Queer Ecology — A Powerful Lens for Reporting on Environmental Injustice [53]

Queer ecology is an evolving field that challenges traditional assumptions in science and explores LGBTQ+ experiences in an ecological context. It’s easy to catch your audience’s attention with stories about transitioning clownfish or same-sex albatross parenting. But as contributor Isaias Hernandez explains, queer ecology also offers journalists an important perspective for covering a range of environmental issues, from climate risk to pollution exposure, and reimagining environmental narratives.

SEJ Publication Types:
Features [52]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [20]
Agriculture [21]
Air [3]
Biodiversity [22]
Climate Change [23]
Disasters [5]
Diversity [54]
Environmental Health [6]
Environmental Justice [7]
Environmental Politics [26]
Environmental Studies [27]
Health [8]
Journalism & Media [9]
People & Population [10]
Planning & Growth [55]
Science [12]
Wildlife [38]
Region:
National (U.S.) [15]
International [48]
Visibility:
Public [17]
- Read more about Queer Ecology — A Powerful Lens for Reporting on Environmental Injustice [53]
Will Your Town Pass the Electric School Bus Acid Test? [56]

A Biden-era plan to put billions into school buses, clean EV-style, could be in the rearview mirror under the Trump administration, reports the latest TipSheet. That’s despite the fume-free, greenhouse gas-scarce qualities that benefit the air and the climate, parents and kids. To get in the driver’s seat on this story, here are a half a dozen local story ideas, plus reporting resources.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [50]
Topics on the Beat:
Air [3]
Climate Change [23]
Energy & Fuel [25]
Environmental Politics [26]
Government [30]
Health [8]
Infrastructure [31]
Journalism & Media [9]
Policy [35]
Pollution [11]
Technology [36]
Transportation [13]
Region:
National (U.S.) [15]
Visibility:
Public [17]
- Read more about Will Your Town Pass the Electric School Bus Acid Test? [56]
Climate Solutions, for Some, May Not Be [57]

A small Louisiana community, home to the descendants of formerly enslaved Black people, continues to fight for its freedom many decades later, this time from a potentially polluting technology. FEJ StoryLog contributor Yessenia Funes recounts her journey to this Cancer Alley community, where a grant from the Fund for Environmental Journalism helped her tell the story of residents challenging a multibillion-dollar carbon capture plant.

SEJ Publication Types:
FEJ StoryLog [58]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [20]
Air [3]
Chemicals [4]
Climate Change [23]
Economy & Business [24]
Energy & Fuel [25]
Environmental Health [6]
Environmental Justice [7]
Environmental Politics [26]
Journalism & Media [9]
People & Population [10]
Planning & Growth [55]
Policy [35]
Pollution [11]
Science [12]
Technology [36]
Region:
National (U.S.) [15]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [46]
Visibility:
Public [17]
- Read more about Climate Solutions, for Some, May Not Be [57]
‘People Will Die’ — Stories Behind Trump Budget Bill [59]

The Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is anything but, especially in its unraveling of efforts to weave environmental and climate justice into American society, argues the new Voices of Environmental Justice. In her latest column, writer Yessenia Funes calls on journalists to report its ramifications not just for the planet but for the most vulnerable people living on it. Here are key stories to start with.

SEJ Publication Types:
Voices of Environmental Justice [60]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [20]
Air [3]
Chemicals [4]
Climate Change [23]
Energy & Fuel [25]
Environmental Health [6]
Environmental Justice [7]
Environmental Politics [26]
Government [30]
Health [8]
Infrastructure [31]
Journalism & Media [9]
Laws & Regulations [32]
People & Population [10]
Policy [35]
Pollution [11]
Waste [37]
Water & Oceans [14]
Region:
National (U.S.) [15]
Alaska and Hawaii [39]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [46]
Visibility:
Public [17]
- Read more about ‘People Will Die’ — Stories Behind Trump Budget Bill [59]
Lapses in Enforcement by Trump's EPA May Yield Local Environment Stories [61]

Enforcement has usually been serious business at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Now it seems many pollution laws are going unpoliced. TipSheet explains how the EPA’s own resources can help investigative reporters find violations, track regulatory actions and uncover nationwide patterns of corporate mismanagement.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [50]
Topics on the Beat:
Air [3]
Chemicals [4]
Economy & Business [24]
Energy & Fuel [25]
Environmental Health [6]
Environmental Justice [7]
Environmental Politics [26]
Government [30]
Health [8]
Journalism & Media [9]
Laws & Regulations [32]
Pollution [11]
Waste [37]
Water & Oceans [14]
Region:
National (U.S.) [15]
Visibility:
Public [17]
- Read more about Lapses in Enforcement by Trump's EPA May Yield Local Environment Stories [61]
NASA Portal Can Lead Reporters to Universe of Data [62]

For environmental journalists looking for data riches to help tell their stories — whether about urban heat islands, sea-surface temperatures or air pollution — NASA has the satellites whose sensors capture insights galore. The latest Reporter’s Toolbox offers an introduction to the U.S. space agency’s incredibly extensive data portal, and how to get started amid the wealth of information (caveat: before it’s gone).

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [63]
Topics on the Beat:
Air [3]
Climate Change [23]
Environmental Health [6]
Environmental Studies [27]
Forests [29]
Government [30]
Journalism & Media [9]
Science [12]
Technology [36]
Water & Oceans [14]
Region:
National (U.S.) [15]
International [48]
Visibility:
Public [17]
- Read more about NASA Portal Can Lead Reporters to Universe of Data [62]

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