Government

To-Do List for Climate Change Gas Methane Is Long, Challenging … and Newsy

The climate change gas methane, relatively little controlled but with a global warming potential many times that of carbon dioxide, has been much in the news recently and promises to remain there. The latest Backgrounder helps environmental journalists track the problem by detailing methane’s sources — from oil and gas production, agriculture and landfills — and the politics surrounding its regulation.

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Native Tribal Nations Push for Changes in Public Lands

As Native tribal nations successfully exert ancestral rights to land stewardship across the West, journalists covering these developments must first grasp the legal principles that underpin Native governmental sovereignty. But also key is to create and sustain relationships with Native community members. Veteran environment and Indigenous affairs reporter Debra Krol lays out the basics for effective reporting from Indian Country.

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Chemicals: Biden's 'End Cancer' Pledge Begs For Environmental Oversight

"President Biden pledged last week to 'end cancer as we know it,' a bold promise focused on boosting funding to the National Institutes of Health for a special Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health. ... But public health experts who have spent their careers examining environmental causes of cancer say it may not be possible to truly stop cancer without EPA stepping in."

Source: E&E News, 05/05/2021

"Water Wonk With Hill, Interior Chops To Lead Army Corps"

"President Biden's pick this week to oversee the Army's vast natural resources operation would bring to the job decades of water experience at the Interior Department and on Capitol Hill.

The president tapped Michael Connor to be the Department of Defense's assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, which oversees the Army Corps of Engineers and its huge network of dams and other projects.

Source: E&E News, 05/03/2021

"Biden’s Pick For No. 2 At Interior Has Numerous Ties To Fossil Fuels"

"President Joe Biden’s nominee for the second-highest position at the Department of the Interior has a list of potential conflicts of interest that rivals that of Trump administration Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, whose ties to industry and his revolving-door experience earned him labels like the “ultimate D.C. swamp creature.”

Source: HuffPost, 04/30/2021

EPA Scientific Integrity Policy — Good Journalism and Good Science Need Lots of Light

“Science is back at EPA,” declared the agency’s new administrator. But for reporters to do their job means more, argues the latest WatchDog — it means ditching a long-standing policy that requires EPA scientists have permission, along with press office “minders,” for interviews. Why that holds back quality journalism and government responsibility to protect public health. Plus, how past agency appointees have overruled science.

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"The Fight to Clean Up the EPA"

"The Environmental Protection Agency recently acknowledged what was plain to most outside observers throughout the Trump era. “Over the past few years, I am aware that political interference sometimes compromised the integrity of our science,” Michal Freedhoff, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, wrote it in a March 10 internal memo."

Source: The Intercept, 04/27/2021

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