Many story leads are tucked away in this 196-page report: recession impacts from drops in extraction and consumption, increases in importation of key materials, insights on stories related to climate change and air pollution, and much more.
The site offers some improvements over poring through the Federal Register, but it's not comprehensive, topics are too broad, and there's poor differentiation between topics and constituencies. On the plus side, visitors can comment on in-process regulations, get alerts about specific regulations, attend online public meetings, and sort in-process regs.
The site includes news, studies, reports, fact sheets, data, predictions, educational tools, an events calendar, and images. The agency says it will adapt the site in response to comments, so feel free to provide feedback.
Educating your audience about the complicated new law will be a useful public service. It will also familiarize you with the people involved at your local facilities, what steps they are taking, and who you can contact if a shooting incident or other violation occurs.
"A group of 19 House Democrats is asking the Minerals Management Service to investigate whether BP PLC has the required engineering documents to safely operate its Atlantis oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico."
"One of three Democratic senators who supports blocking U.S. EPA's ability to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants draws one of the highest amounts of campaign contributions from electric utilities."
"Environmentalists filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on Monday accusing the service of illegally allowing farmers to grow genetically modified crops in a national wildlife refuge."
"The state House passes a bill allowing the use of eminent domain to take protected land from the federal government. Utah wants to develop a stretch outside Arches National Park and other areas."
"Food-borne illnesses, such as E. coli and salmonella, cost the United States $152 billion annually in health care and other losses, according to a report released Wednesday by a food safety group."
EPA added Brooklyn's long-polluted Gowanus Canal to the Superfund National Priority List -- along with nine other sites. The designation means that EPA will oversee the cleanup. New York City Mayor Bloomberg had been pushing for a city-run cleanup.
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