"Last night, Michael Bromwich, the new director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (formerly known as the Minerals Management Service), circulated an email to staffers outlining new ethics policies for employees who deal with offshore drilling, an attempt to reform his run amuck division's rep for being too cozy with oil and gas interests."
"The BP oil spill was a massive 'failure' in government oversight and administrations should be forced to consult with experts in the field before making expansive drilling policy, top officials of the White House's oil spill commission said on Wednesday."
The National Response Center, a single call-in facility for the reporting of all kinds of oil and chemicals leaks, spills, and discharges, puts all the data online in a form than can be queried or downloaded.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says if NOAA repealed its Don't-Tell press policy, agency scientists would again be able to freely talk to the taxpayers about tax-funded research.
USFWS officers and DHS agents are not allowing independent academic researchers to study damage from the BP oil spill to natural resources from public lands and waters, saying they are justified by the "Natural Resource Damage Assessment" process under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and "national security," respectively.
Obama administration officials are publicly refusing to disclose data backing up an August 4 report announcing that some three-fourths of the BP oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico was "gone.".
"Another BP employee is refusing to testify in the investigation into the cause of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, invoking his Fifth Amendment right to not produce testimony that could incriminate him."
While thoroughly bureaucratic, the 55-page guidance document, as well as EPA's Environmental Justice Strategic Enforcement Assessment Tool, can be useful resources for reporters who seek to understand and highlight potential environmental justice issues unfolding at the national, regional, or state level.
"Volunteering in state parks has long been a staple of the Boy Scouts experience. But in Georgia this year, as the Boy Scouts celebrate their 100th anniversary by building bridges and park benches, maintaining trails and cleaning up waterways, the ongoing event is unusual in one respect: It’s sponsored by Verizon Wireless."
The early release includes only about 80% of the total expected submissions. Updates should be available in August and September, and the agency will release its analysis later in 2010.
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