Publication Items

What the Public Doesn't Know About Treaties Won't Hurt the Corporations [1]

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 [3]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Economy & Business [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about What the Public Doesn't Know About Treaties Won't Hurt the Corporations [1]
Corporations: Our Pollution Is a Trade Secret [7]

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 [6]
- Read more about Corporations: Our Pollution Is a Trade Secret [7]
National Pipeline Mapping System, Though Hobbled, Can Help Journalists [8]

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 [9]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about National Pipeline Mapping System, Though Hobbled, Can Help Journalists [8]
Exxon Seeks To Keep Pegasus Inspections Secret As KXL Twists in Wind [11]

Exxon claims trade secrecy in its bid to hide inspection results for the pipeline that leaked 5,000 barrels of Canadian oil sands crude in Arkansas last spring, spurring debate over transparency and spill readiness. EnergyWire's Elana Schor has the story, raising questions that have still to be answered.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [4]
Environmental Politics [9]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Disasters [12]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Exxon Seeks To Keep Pegasus Inspections Secret As KXL Twists in Wind [11]
Congressional Research Service Reports on Environment Leaked [13]

Topics of the latest CRS reports shared by the Federation of American Scientist's Project on Government Secrecy include GMO wheat, earthquake risk and highway infrastructure, carbon capture and sequestration, the regional greenhouse gas initiative, regulation of fertilizers, and more.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [14]
Transportation [15]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Disasters [12]
Climate Change [16]
Chemicals [17]
Agriculture [18]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Congressional Research Service Reports on Environment Leaked [13]
Toolbox: EPA "Data Finder" May Aid in Some Reporting Projects [19]

If you want to take advantage of EPA databases to report on local (or even national) environmental conditions, this tool is a step beyond the all-in-one EPA data interfaces many journalists are used to, in that it catalogs some of the less-known specialized databases. It is unusual among government data programs in that it explicitly encourages third-party developers to build apps based on open agency data.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Technology [20]
Government [21]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Toolbox: EPA "Data Finder" May Aid in Some Reporting Projects [19]
Will CA Gov. Brown Veto Budget Bill with Rider Gutting FOI Law? [22]

[SEE UPDATE: Cal Assembly Walks Back CPRA Attack.] The last-minute sneak attack on open government was crafted and pushed through by Brown's own party. Local governments would be legally able to ignore the major requirements of the Public Records Law which force them to respond to freedom-of-information requests and justify any denial of requests.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [21]
Region:
California [23]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Will CA Gov. Brown Veto Budget Bill with Rider Gutting FOI Law? [22]
Disclosure? BLM Fracking Rule Panned by Industry, Panned by Enviros [24]

The revised proposal still allows companies to claim trade secrecy on chemicals in fracking fluid — and to fulfill disclosure requirements on the remainder by submitting them to the controversial FracFocus database, run by the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission and the Groundwater Protection Council.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [4]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Chemicals [17]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Disclosure? BLM Fracking Rule Panned by Industry, Panned by Enviros [24]
Judge Rejects Industry Suit To Omit Styrenes from Carcinogens Report [25]

Styrene (used to make plastic packaging) was listed in June 2011 as "reasonably anticipated" to be cancer-causing in the biennial federal Report on Carcinogens. Industry not only challenged, but also mounted a political campaign, persuading a powerful House Appropriations subcommittee chairman to withhold spending for the report until NTP reconsidered the styrene listing.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [4]
Health [26]
Chemicals [17]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Judge Rejects Industry Suit To Omit Styrenes from Carcinogens Report [25]
Groups Oppose North Carolina "Ag-Gag" Bill [27]

NC's Senate is considering an industry-sponsored bill that would extend restrictions on undercover investigations beyond livestock operations to include other categories of industry. The state's Chamber of Commerce supports it, saying industries beyond agriculture want protection from the reporting of workplace abuses.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [4]
Agriculture [18]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [28]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Groups Oppose North Carolina "Ag-Gag" Bill [27]

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