Environmental journalists may find a story by asking about the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of a nearby coal-burning power plant or major chemical refinery. A new online EPA database gives information about the largest GHG emitters, makes the query easier and the answers more accurate.
A New Jersey chemical company, Elementis Chromium, will have to pay a $2.6 million fine for failing to disclose information about the toxicity of hexavalent chromium to workers, in violation of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
Some hope for more open government at the federal level emerged November 18, 2013, when the House passed a bill known as the Digital Accountability and Transparency (DATA) Act aimed at improving public data about federal spending. The hope was bolstered by the fact that the bill passed the House by a bipartisan 388-1 recorded vote.
You may smell that stench from a feedlot near your home, but the farm lobby and some of your elected representatives in Congress don't think you have any right to know who is creating it. This year's Farm Bill could include the most sweeping censorship ever of public information on agricultural pollution and the identities of the corporations that profit from it.
"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A glowing lagoon off Puerto Rico's northeast coast has gone nearly dark and biologists on Tuesday were trying to find out why."
"From farmers to the oil and gas industry to gubernatorial candidate and Attorney General Greg Abbott, Texans are looking beneath their land to make up the state’s growing water deficit."
"Children may enjoy plopping down in foam-filled chairs just their size, but a report released Wednesday by several advocacy groups says those chairs may contain flame retardants that could be harmful."
"Biofuels producers and their political allies are ramping up public and behind-the-scenes pressure on the Environmental Protection Agency to rethink its plan to scale back the national biofuels blending mandate."
"Shell plans to drill five wells over several years at its Burger prospect in the Chukchi Sea, according to a revised exploration plan filed Nov. 6 and posted online by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management."
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to study whether plastic pollution on a small island in the Pacific Ocean is severe enough to warrant listing it as a Superfund clean-up site. Tern Island, a 25-acre strip of land about 500 miles northwest of the Hawaiian island Oahu, is home to millions of seabirds, sea turtles, and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. "
Yale Environment 360 had the story November 19, 2013.
