Publication Items

Transparency Remains an Issue As McCarthy Takes EPA Helm [1]

House and Senate Republicans made a big deal over EPA "transparency" while McCarthy's nomination was being held up in the Senate, for 130 days. Then on July 9, 2013, the Senate Environment Committee's ranking minority member said he would drop his filibuster threat because EPA had agreed to some of his demands on transparency.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [3]
Environmental Politics [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Transparency Remains an Issue As McCarthy Takes EPA Helm [1]
Halliburton Admits Destroying Gulf Spill Evidence [6]

Journalists who worried about a cover-up during the April 2010 blowout of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico got some vindication this month when Halliburton admitted to destroying evidence. The company agreed to pay $200,000 in fines and donate $55 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [7]
Economy & Business [8]
Disasters [9]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [10]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Halliburton Admits Destroying Gulf Spill Evidence [6]
Police Arrest California Photog at Highway Protest [11]

If the public can't see it, it didn't happen, right? That seems to be the logic of California officials who arrested a newspaper photographer for covering an environmental protest at the site where a highway overpass was being constructed and protesters had chained themselves to construction equipment.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [12]
Region:
California [13]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Police Arrest California Photog at Highway Protest [11]
EPA Science Databases Offer Grist for Environmental Journalists [14]

Science is the key to many environmental stories, and EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) offers a wide range of data tools journalists may find worthwhile to explore.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Technology [15]
Science [16]
Government [3]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about EPA Science Databases Offer Grist for Environmental Journalists [14]
NIOSH Withholding Locations Where Fracking Sand Threatens Workers [17]

Studies by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health show silica used in hydraulic fracturing of tight oil and gas formations can endanger workers. But a FOIA request seeking to know the sites where workers had been endangered has met with no response, independent journalist and SEJ member Elizabeth Grossman reports.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
People & Population [18]
Health [19]
Government [3]
Energy & Fuel [20]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about NIOSH Withholding Locations Where Fracking Sand Threatens Workers [17]
Paragliding Photojournalist Arrested Near Kansas Feedlot [21]

Award-winning photojournalist George Steinmetz was arrested June 28, 2013, after flying a motorized paraglider over a cattle feedlot in Finney County, Kansas, while on assignment for National Geographic magazine.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Transportation [22]
Laws & Regulations [23]
Journalism & Media [12]
Agriculture [24]
Region:
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [25]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Paragliding Photojournalist Arrested Near Kansas Feedlot [21]
Does Info on Pipeline Hazards Belong to Public They Endanger? [26]

A doughty, Pulitzer-winning publication is insisting the public has a right to know when pipeline companies are profiting by endangering people's lives, health, and property. InsideClimate News is pushing back against oil companies and federal regulators who say reports on pipeline flaws and hazards are trade secrets.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
People & Population [18]
Energy & Fuel [20]
Economy & Business [8]
Disasters [9]
Region:
National (U.S.) [27]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Does Info on Pipeline Hazards Belong to Public They Endanger? [26]
What the Public Doesn't Know About Treaties Won't Hurt the Corporations [28]

If you are looking for yet another category of environmental information that the U.S. public is not allowed to know about, try international trade agreements. A recent court decision — one that got little attention from the news media — upheld the federal government's authority to keep secret some information about the health and environmental impacts of trade treaties.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
People & Population [18]
Laws & Regulations [23]
Economy & Business [8]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about What the Public Doesn't Know About Treaties Won't Hurt the Corporations [28]
Corporations: Our Pollution Is a Trade Secret [29]

On June 25, 2013 — the day President Obama gave his climate speech — officials from the Office of Management and Budget, the Council on Environmental Quality, and the Environmental Protection Agency held a closed-door meeting with lobbyists from the oil and chemical industries who don't want the public to know how they calculate their greenhouse gas emissions.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Corporations: Our Pollution Is a Trade Secret [29]
National Pipeline Mapping System, Though Hobbled, Can Help Journalists [30]

After a decade of neglect, the NPMS is partly back online and marginally functional. Parts of it don't even work. But if you want to get a general clue about the location of major natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines in your community, the NPMS is one place to start. And, there are other ways to get the info you need.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [4]
Energy & Fuel [20]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about National Pipeline Mapping System, Though Hobbled, Can Help Journalists [30]

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