Publication Items

EPA Promises to Look into Muzzling of Advisory Panel Scientists [1]

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 [3]
Policy [4]
Science [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about EPA Promises to Look into Muzzling of Advisory Panel Scientists [1]
States Hide Safety Failures Over Routing Data on Crude Oil Trains [7]

Just over a year after an oil-train explosion in Quebec killed 47 people, information on the threats oil trains present to public safety is starting to seep through a long blackout in which railroads convinced pliable federal regulators that the public was better off not knowing. Journalists from the AP and McClatchy FOIA'd information loose from Amtrak on Maryland and Pennsylvania, two of the states that have been reluctant to disclose.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [8]
Laws & Regulations [9]
Transportation [10]
Region:
National (U.S.) [11]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [12]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about States Hide Safety Failures Over Routing Data on Crude Oil Trains [7]
White House Issues "Non-Response" to 38 J-Groups on Spin Complaint [13]

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest responded belatedly on August 11, 2014 to 38 journalism groups, including SEJ, that had complained on July 8, 2014, about Obama administration press offices blocking journalists' access to federal officials. But it was a "non-response," according to SPJ president David Cuillier.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [3]
Journalism & Media [14]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about White House Issues "Non-Response" to 38 J-Groups on Spin Complaint [13]
FACA Database Offers Major Tool for Gumshoes [15]

Journalists: if you haven't been paying attention to federal advisory committees, maybe it's time to start. These panels are a major back door through which industry exerts quiet influence on government regulators — but they are kept available to scrutiny by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and the Sunshine Act.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [3]
Laws & Regulations [9]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about FACA Database Offers Major Tool for Gumshoes [15]
Lobbyists Can Now Join Federal Advisory Committees [16]

The Obama White House released a new rule reversing its ban on lobbyists in government. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rule allows registered lobbyists to participate as members on panels covered by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The rule change was forced by a court decision.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [17]
Laws & Regulations [9]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Lobbyists Can Now Join Federal Advisory Committees [16]
EPA Muzzles Advisory Board Scientists [18]

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 [19]
Government [3]
Policy [4]
Science [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about EPA Muzzles Advisory Board Scientists [18]
Company Subpoenas Journalists in "Pink Slime" Suit [20]

Four journalists and a food writer have had their notes subpoenaed in a company's $1.2-billion defamation lawsuit against ABC News for calling its product, a common hamburger additive, "pink slime."

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [21]
Food [22]
Laws & Regulations [9]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Company Subpoenas Journalists in "Pink Slime" Suit [20]
Fresh Secret Reports from the Congressional Research Service [23]

Here are some recent explainers of interest to environmental journalists from the CRS, which Congress does not allow to be released to the taxpaying public who paid for them. The WatchDog thanks those who leaked them and the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy for publishing them.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [24]
Chemicals [25]
Climate Change [26]
Economy & Business [27]
Energy & Fuel [8]
Laws & Regulations [9]
Natural Resources [28]
People & Population [29]
Policy [4]
Pollution [30]
Transportation [10]
Water & Oceans [31]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Fresh Secret Reports from the Congressional Research Service [23]
Support Mounts for FOIA Upgrade Bill in Senate [32]

Pressure to bring a bipartisan power-boost bill for the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Senate floor mounted June 26, 2014, when a coalition of some 50 groups urged action. The bill would narrow a broad exemption that has in some cases shielded from disclosure almost anything not published in official and final form.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [3]
Laws & Regulations [9]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Support Mounts for FOIA Upgrade Bill in Senate [32]
EPA Press Office Obfuscation Keeps Complaints Boiling [33]

If you want to interview an EPA official about a drinking water pollution catastrophe or a controversy about air pollution from fracking, the press office may do its best to stop you. Examples abound. But, there are ways for journalists to push back. Read about them here.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [8]
Environmental Politics [19]
Government [3]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about EPA Press Office Obfuscation Keeps Complaints Boiling [33]

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