As the Trump administration proposes big cuts at environmental agencies like the U.S. EPA, the latest TipSheet explores how to dig up local angles from the budget action. Examples: Tracking changes at EPA regional offices and labs, at Superfund or at state revolving funds for clean water and safe drinking water programs.
The Toxics Release Inventory has long been a vital reporting tool, and now there's a new edition of the database, issued last month by the outgoing Obama administration. Reporter's Toolbox walks you through how to smartly mine TRI for stories, whether you're a newbie or a veteran. Plus, TRI caveats.
"The governor of North Dakota ordered protesters on Wednesday to evacuate a demonstration camp near the site of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the latest move to clear the area that has served as a base for opposition to the multibillion dollar project."
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.
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.
While it's too soon to tell what the new Trump administration and 115th Congress will do, our special report suggests we may see a groundswell of environmental deregulation and massive energy development. Backgrounder looks at the top 10 energy-environment issues to watch in the President Trump era.
Democrats and Republications may agree on a vast federal program to build and repair the nation's crumbling infrastructure, but still uncertain is what will be built, how it will be paid for and who will vote for it. TipSheet looks at the politics of public works (what journalists used to call "pork").
At a time when government information may be harder than ever to access, WatchDog offers a unique guide to leaks that reporters can offer potential whistleblowers. Also in the latest column, sealed records on a weedkiller-cancer connection, secret talks on coal-ash regs and more.
To help keep tabs on the newly seated 115th Congress and its gate-keepers of energy and environment law, the latest TipSheet offers a checklist of committee leadership. Plus, a closer look at three key Senate panels, likely agendas and new leadership, such as Senate Energy Committee Chair John Barrasso, R-Wyo. (shown in photo).
"The reopening of the nation's only underground nuclear waste repository nearly three years after a radiation leak marks a key step toward cleaning up a decadeslong legacy of bomb-making and research, but the U.S. energy secretary said more needs to be done before a backlog of contaminated material starts heading to the New Mexico desert again."
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