Here are some recently leaked CRS reports of relevance to environmental journalists, as well as the latest on the debate following the NYT editorial calling for the reports to be made public.
Congress, you may remember, has exempted itself from the requirements for open government — and that included a ban on publishing taxpayer-funded explainers by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Thanks to the Federation of American Scientists, you can read them anyway.
Congress does not release reports done by the Congressional Research Service to the public, even though taxpayers fund them. Thanks to the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project, you can read them anyway.
Winnifred Bird and Jane Braxton Little, a former SEJ mentor program pair, describe (with humor!) the process of how they turned their shared interest in the Fukushima disaster's affect on forest ecosystems and rural communities into a successful writing collaboration.
Nobody has ever explained why Congress refuses to release the tax-funded explainers produced by the Congressional Research Service. They are a gold standard for journalists needing quick background. Here are some recent CRS reports relevant to environmental journalists, helpfully released by the Federation of American Scientists.
Three major electric utilities want the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to make ratepayers pay for aging and unprofitable coal and nuclear generation plants in that state. But the ratepayers — the utilities claim — aren't entitled to know whether they might be ripped off.
Journalists hurrying to get up to speed on environmental or energy issues can get objective background from reports by the Congressional Research Service (an arm of the Library of Congress), which does not release them to the taxpaying public that funded them. We thank the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project for publishing them.
"Inside Story" editor Beth Daley interviews Tampa (FL) Bay Times' Ivan Penn about his reporting on nuclear power, including the closing of the Crystal River Nuclear Plant, problems with cooling tubes at another facility and the risk to ratepayers for new nuclear power generation in Florida. Photo: Cooling towers at Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida. © Maurice Rivenbark, Tampa Bay Times.
