"Environmental groups on Monday asked the Obama administration to extend the approval process of the Keystone XL pipeline, using last month's spill of heavy Canadian crude oil in Arkansas as their latest reason to delay the project."
In recent years the Obama administration has taken secrecy to a new level by failing to respond to even many routine inquiries by the news media about what this important agency is doing in regard to human health and protecting the environment. With Gina McCarthy's nomination to head the EPA facing confirmation, it's time for the Senate to ask some hard questions. Read SEJ's statement on the need for greater EPA openness with the media and resulting coverage.
"LOS ANGELES -- Surfers here have long lived by a simple rule: When it rains, no matter how good the waves may be, stay out of the water. Those who do head out to the Venice Pier on a rainy day might have their bravery (or naïveté) repaid with pinkeye, a fever or diarrhea."
"With the warming U.S. Arctic region poised for greater oil and mining development, the White House needs to develop a national strategy that can take environmental decisions on a larger scale, a report issued Thursday concluded."
"Two Arkansas women sue ExxonMobil after its Pegasus pipeline ruptured, spewing oil onto lawns and roads. The $5 million class-action suit charges the pipeline spill has permanently diminished their property value."
"The Canadian government has barred scientists from entering the Experimental Lakes Area in Ontario starting on 1 April and has begun dismantling some of its buildings. As funding for the internationally admired freshwater research station dried up this week, scientists with on-going projects at the facility were left wondering about the future of their research."
"On one covert video, farm workers illegally burn the ankles of Tennessee walking horses with chemicals. Another captures workers in Wyoming punching and kicking pigs and flinging piglets into the air. And at one of the country’s largest egg suppliers, a video shows hens caged alongside rotting bird corpses, while workers burn and snap off the beaks of young chicks."
"Listeria in cantaloupes. Salmonella in peanuts. E. coli in spinach. Hepatitis A in green onions. In the past decade a rash of tainted food has resulted in thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths. It has also prompted the most sweeping reform of U.S. food safety laws in more than 70 years."
"A city administrator looks out at the Gulf of Mexico from this Southeast Texas town, wondering what vicious hurricanes it may spawn. In the Panhandle, a farmer tries new techniques to keep soil from turning to dust. In West Texas, ranchers watch prairie grass die. Others grow algae as water becomes too salty for other crops. And statewide, reservoirs dry up. Want to see what happens when the impacts of climate change are felt? Well, just look at Texas, some scientists say."
"Leaky pipes are the 'super low-hanging fruit' of climate change."
Links
[1] https://www.sej.org/headlines/greens-ask-us-delay-keystone-decision-after-arkansas-leak
[2] http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/68352
[3] https://www.sej.org/new-epa-head-must-ensure-transparency-reversing-block-reporters-access
[4] https://www.sej.org/headlines/slaking-region%E2%80%99s-thirst-while-cleaning-its-beaches
[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/us/los-angeles-plan-to-turn-pollution-into-drinking-water.htm
[6] https://www.sej.org/headlines/new-strategy-needed-cope-arctic-environmental-changes-report
[7] http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/68342
[8] https://www.sej.org/headlines/exxonmobil-pipeline-spill-triggers-lawsuit
[9] http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2013/0407/ExxonMobil-pipeline-spill-triggers-lawsuit?nav=92-csm_category-topStories
[10] https://www.sej.org/headlines/canada-shutters-research-lakes-facilities
[11] http://blogs.nature.com/news/2013/04/canada-shutters-research-lakes-facilities.html
[12] https://www.sej.org/headlines/taping-farm-cruelty-becoming-crime
[13] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/us/taping-of-farm-cruelty-is-becoming-the-crime.html?ref=us&_r=0
[14] https://www.sej.org/headlines/standards-aim-strengthen-food-safety
[15] http://www.news-press.com/article/20130407/NEWS01/304070032/1008/ACC/Standards-aim-strengthen-food-safety?nclick_check=1
[16] https://www.sej.org/headlines/texas-provides-clues-climate-change-impacts
[17] http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Texas-Provides-Clues-of-Climate-Change-Impacts-201780221.html
[18] https://www.sej.org/headlines/frackers-are-losing-15-billion-yearly-leaks
[19] http://climatedesk.org/2013/04/frackers-are-losing-1-5-billion-yearly-to-leaks/
[20] https://www.sej.org/search_results
[21] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3805
[22] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3802
[23] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3803
[24] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3804
[25] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3807
[26] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3808
[27] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3809
[28] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3810
[29] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=5084