"Bank Of America Backs Away From Funding Coal Mining"
"Bank of America is cutting off its financing for coal extraction projects, the company announced at its shareholder meeting Wednesday."
Source: Huffington Post, 05/07/2015
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"Feds Agree To Help Diversify Outer Banks’ Wild Horses"
"As the summer tourist season approaches on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, there’s a growing hope among horse advocates that the iconic wild horses of Corolla can be saved from a fate of inbreeding and deformities."
Source: McClatchy, 05/07/2015
"Tornadoes, Severe Flooding Hit Oklahoma City Area, Injuries Reported"
"A series of tornadoes, including a major twister, touched down southwest of Oklahoma City on Wednesday, injuring several residents of a trailer park, causing severe flooding and the escape of bears from a wildlife park, officials said."
Source: Reuters, 05/07/2015
"Oil Tank Car Fire Forces Evacuation of North Dakota Town"
"A train carrying highly volatile crude oil derailed and erupted into flames on Wednesday morning, forcing the evacuation of a small town in North Dakota, according to local and federal officials."
Source: NY Times, 05/07/2015
Need to Know? Eight Reports from the Congressional Research Service
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.
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Americans Can't Know Whether Chemicals in Products They Use Are Unsafe
As Congress limps toward revisions of the badly broken Toxic Substances Control Act, it's clear that only a small fraction of the roughly 84,000 chemicals in commerce in the U.S. have actually been tested for health effects. Now an environmental health group has rated some household cleaning products firms.
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New Oil Train Regs Go Backward on Public's Right to Know Risks
Since U.S. oil production started booming, the news has been full of tanker trains blowing up. Under a May 2014 emergency order, the Federal Railway Administration increased requirements that railroads disclose oil train routes. But a new regulation issued May 1, 2015, leaves the public — and firefighters — with less information about the risks they face. Photo: The latest oil train derailment and explosion, today, in ND/Curt Bemson via AP.
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Despite FOIA, EPA Press Policy Remains a Puzzle Palace
In response to the WatchDog's request for the U.S. EPA's press policy, EPA seems to be saying that it doesn't have one. Or that paradoxically EPA staff can talk to reporters but are forbidden to talk to reporters. Or that EPA does not respond to requests for information. Even though the WatchDog finally got a partial response to its June 10, 2014, FOIA request for EPA policies on news media access to EPA employees on April 29, 2015, nothing was revealed. Puzzled? So are we.
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Boston Airport Moves To Guard Against Effects of Climate Change
"Officials at Boston Logan International Airport have announced a broad multimillion-dollar plan to make the airport, which is almost surrounded by water, more environmentally sustainable and resilient in the face of climate change."
Source: NY Times, 05/06/2015
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