Publication Items

The U.S. EPA has been stonewalling a June 2014 SEJ request for documents describing its policies for dealing with news media. Now SEJ is appealing the long delay in responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by calling it what it is — a denial of information.

April 20, 2015, marks the fifth anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history. The story is far from over. If you are covering the legacy of the spill, SEJ is offering two special TipSheets by the Advocate's Amy Wold that will help you get the facts and background. Photo: Oiled endangered Ridley's turtle. Credit: Carolyn Cole/ LA Times; courtesy NOAA.

In this issue: Conflict over environment and energy in 2015; nonprofit news rescues environmental journalism, or not; freelance digital journalism founders; using ground journalism, striking visuals for complex global stories; SEJ's diversity struggles; bringing to life climate- and weather-related data; free digital tools for EJ educators, students; interview with Jörg Friedrichs, author, “The Future Is Not What It Used to Be: Climate Change and Energy Scarcity;” and book reviews.

The score came from the Center for Effective Government, which now awards the scores annually. Much of the score is based on the agency's performance under the Freedom of Information Act. EPA was one of the few agencies whose grade actually went down since 2014.