For the first time, Sundance Film Festival spotlighted a single theme, and it was climate change. Documentaries highlighting the issue including a sequel to Al Gore's blockbuster, as well as more than a dozen other films dealing with issues like coral reefs, recyling, changing landscapes and rainforest destruction.
Environmental journalists at a day-long event urged colleagues to report on the real, local impacts of policy, more than on the buzz around the policy. On hand at the SEJ-sponsored program were representatives of administrations past and present, including Trump EPA transition team head Myron Ebell (shown).
Videos:
Tracy Mehan lll, American Water Works Association
Myron Ebell, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Ed Maibach, George Mason University
Scott Segal, Policy Resolution Group and Bracewell LLP
Bob Perciasepe, Center for Climate & Energy Solutions
Environmental advocates
Journalists panel
"Pygmy elephants. Monkeys with noses the size of beer cans. And a deer so small you could cradle it like a baby.... We're in the middle of Malaysia's Borneo rain forest. Olival has brought us here because this is the type of place where pandemics are born. HIV came from a rain forest. So did Ebola. Yellow fever. And Zika."
"DuPont and Chemours Co have agreed to pay $671 million in cash to settle thousands of lawsuits involving a leak of a toxic chemical used to make Teflon, the companies said on Monday."
"Indiana's energy utilities want state lawmakers to pass a law that critics say would muscle out smaller companies from the emerging solar energy market."
The latest WatchDog TipSheet details an open-records case against U.S. EPA nominee Scott Pruitt (shown), the scoop on an Agriculture Department animal welfare database that vanished then returned, a reporter busted at Standing Rock, plus items on whistleblowers, coal-ash and more.
"A research scholar at New York University has resigned from Exxon Mobil Corp.'s External Citizenship Advisory Panel, citing what she calls the oil giant’s 'targeted attacks' on environmental groups under former CEO Rex Tillerson’s watch."
"A complicated legal battle awaits the Trump administration if it tries to withdraw from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the Congressional Research Service in a new report."
Senate votes on confirming Scott Pruitt to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could come as soon as Thursday and Friday this week. Pruitt's office in Oklahoma has stonewalled open-records requests from environmentalists for his emails with energy companies -- and the first court hearing seeking to compel disclosure is scheduled for Thursday.
"A federal judge on Monday refused to stop construction on the last stretch of the Dakota Access pipeline, which is progressing much faster than expected and could be operational in as little as 30 days."
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