Read the Congressional Reports You're Not Supposed To Read

Journalists hurrying to get up to speed on environmental or energy issues can get objective background from reports by the Congressional Research Service (an arm of the Library of Congress). Congress, in its wisdom, does not release these reports to the taxpaying public that funded them. We thank the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project for publishing them. Here are some recent ones:

• "Natural Gas for Cars and Trucks: Options and Challenges," Congressional Research Service (R43791), November 19,2014, by Bill Canis, Robert Pirog, and Brent D. Yacobucci.
• "Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange: Legislative History, Litigation, and Current Issues," Congressional Research Service (R43790), November 18, 2014, by Sidath Viranga Panangala and Daniel T. Shedd.
• "Scientific Basis of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Actions: H.R. 1422 and H.R. 4012," Congressional Research Service (CRS Insights IN10182), November 17, 2014, by Jerry H. Yen.
• "International Climate Change Financing: The Green Climate Fund (GCF)," Congressional Research Service (R41889), November 17, 2014, by Richard K. Lattanzio.
• "The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative: Lessons Learned and Issues for Policy Makers," Congressional Research Service (R41836), November 14, 2014, by Jonathan L. Ramseur.
• "Keystone XL Pipeline: Overview and Recent Developments," Congressional Research Service (R43787), November 13, 2014, by Paul W. Parfomak, Linda Luther, Richard K. Lattanzio, Jonathan L. Ramseur, Adam Vann, Robert Pirog, and Ian F. Fergusson.
• "FEMA’s Disaster Declaration Process: A Primer," Congressional Research Service (R43784), November 12, 2014, by Francis X. McCarthy.
• "Bee Health: Background and Issues for Congress," Congressional Research Service (R43191), November 3, 2014, by Renée Johnson and M. Lynne Corn.
• "Landsat: Overview and Issues for Congress," Congressional Research Service (R40594), October 27, 2014, by Peter Folger.
• "EPA's Clean Power Plan Proposal: Are the Emission Rate Targets Front-Loaded?" Congressional Research Service (CRS Insights IN10172), November 3, 2014, by Jonathan L. Ramseur.
• "Renewable Energy R&D Funding History: A Comparison with Funding for Nuclear Energy, Fossil Energy, and Energy Efficiency R&D," Congressional Research Service (RS2285), October 10, 2014, by Fred Sissine.