EPA's upcoming rulings on confidentiality for data going into the companies' GHG calculations will be important. Those determinations may impact whether companies' reporting is accurate — and whether they can ever be held accountable for their emissions.
The Right-To-Know Network has been around since 1989. Today, with a modern and searchable Web interface, it offers access to some data that reporters would be hard put to find anywhere else. Most important is its collection of Risk Management Plans — which chemical plants are required to maintain to prevent, prepare for, and respond to toxic disasters.
One sign of problems came when Interior's Inspector General office launched what seemed to be a ham-handed investigation, later dropped, into activities of the scientist who sounded the alarm on polar bears losing habitat to global warming. Now Interior has fired one of its scientific integrity officers — who is defending himself by saying he was just doing his job.
Bill Dawson has the "Inside Story" on ex-CNN science, environment, weather and technology executive producer Peter Dykstra's return to the journalism fold.
"Republicans for Environmental Protection is dropping the 'Republican' — after 17 years of trying to demonstrate that a group can comfortably exist in today’s GOP while championing causes like global warming and opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."
"The group’s new name is ConservAmerica, a name that’s supposed to represent 'the inherent connection between conservation and conservatism' while appealing to an audience that has grown less party-affiliated.
"By showing that Arctic climate change is no longer just a problem for the polar bear, a new study may finally dispel the view that what happens in the Arctic, stays in the Arctic."
"MEXICO CITY — Two years after the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, Mexico's state oil company is about to test its hand at drilling at extraordinary depths in the Gulf of Mexico."
"In one of the deadliest nightclub fires in American history, 100 people died at a concert in Rhode Island nearly a decade ago. But the biggest killer wasn't the flames; it was lethal gases released from burning sound insulation and other plastics."
"Peter Kareiva had come to answer for his truths. Settling at the head of a long table ringed by young researchers new to the policy world, Kareiva, chief scientist of the Nature Conservancy, the world's largest environmental organization, cracked open a beer. After a long day mentoring at the group's headquarters, an eight-story box nestled in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, he was ready for some sparring."
“We’ve never seen newspaper stories like this and we’re using them in our classes to teach students the basics of environmental science.”
Links
[1] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/are-data-behind-companies-greenhouse-gas-emissions-trade-secrets
[2] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/rtk-net-reporting-tools-still-sharp-after-many-years
[3] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/integrity-problems-interiors-science-integrity-program
[4] https://www.sej.org/publications/sejournal-sp12/dykstra-returns-calling-journalism-climate-change-next-best-story
[5] https://www.sej.org/publications/public/sejournal-currentToC
[6] https://www.sej.org/headlines/gop-green-group-drops-republicans-name
[7] http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/74745.html
[8] https://www.sej.org/headlines/arctic-warming-altering-weather-patterns-study-shows
[9] http://www.climatecentral.org/news/arctic-warming-is-altering-weather-patterns-study-shows/
[10] https://www.sej.org/headlines/mexican-plan-gulf-deepwater-wells-sparks-new-worries
[11] http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/03/144004/mexican-plan-for-gulf-deepwater.html
[12] https://www.sej.org/headlines/burning-irony-flame-retardants-might-create-deadlier-fires
[13] http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2012/burning-irony
[14] https://www.sej.org/headlines/myth-busting-scientist-pushes-greens-past-reliance-horror-stories
[15] http://www.eenews.net/public/Greenwire/2012/04/03/1
[16] https://www.sej.org/headlines/qa-nyt%E2%80%99s-justin-gillis
[17] http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/qa_the_nyts_justin_gillis.php
[18] https://www.sej.org/search_results
[19] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4020
[20] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4017
[21] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4018
[22] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4019
[23] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4022
[24] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4023
[25] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4024
[26] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4025
[27] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=5009