Here, courtesy of the Federation of American Scientists, are some recent Congressional Research Service backgrounders that may be useful to environment/energy reporters, on chemical facility security, nuclear power plant design and seismic safety considerations, and proposed Keystone XL pipeline legal issues.
The e-mail pressuring agency scientists was written by USGS Director Marcia McNutt, and was never meant to be made public. Against strong agency resistance, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility forced disclosure of the e-mail with a Freedom-of-Information-Act lawsuit.
"The Commerce Department agency that oversees everything from daily weather forecasts to storm warnings, climate monitoring and fisheries management would be transferred to the Interior Department under an ambitious plan of government consolidation announced by the president [Friday].
In an address, President Obama proposed merging six government agencies that primarily oversee business and trade into one, a move designed to 'help businesses grow, save businesses time and save taxpayer dollars.'
Somewhere near you there is probably an activist who has been doggedly seeking documents from a local, state, or federal agency which has been reluctant to provide them. Their story might well be worth telling. Sunshine Week, March 11-17, 2012, will celebrate "Local Heroes" with a roundup of such stories.
It remains to be seen how successful the House will be in timely posting of electronic versions of bills — especially when they are thousand-page appropriations bills being rammed through at the last minute. The WatchDog will be watching to see if bills are published electronically well before subcommittee markups begin.
Ongoing controversy over Pennsylvania's oversight (or lack thereof) of fracking for gas in the Marcellus Shale has brought a lot of readers to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's "Pipeline" reporting portal. The Post-Gazette offers interactive maps of drilling data from the Department of Environmental Protection. One big problem: "DEP's production data ... says there are 495 more wells producing gas, or ready to produce gas, than DEP has recorded as ever being drilled, and 182 of those wells don't even show up on the state's Marcellus Shale permit list."
"Dr. Paul Anastas, a top EPA scientist who heads the agency’s research branch is leaving EPA and returning to Yale University in February."
"EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the news in a memo to staff Thursday. Anastas is EPA’s formal science adviser and heads the Office of Research and Development."
Ben Geman reports for the Hill's E2 Wire January 6, 2012.
"Having left Congress after an embarrassing 2007 arrest, former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has quietly reemerged in Washington as a lobbyist working on behalf of the coal industry. According to his federal filings, Craig has registered to wheedle his former Capitol colleagues on the obscure but critical issue of mine safety."
One example is Walt Tamosaitis, who works for an Energy Department subcontractor. He told a Senate panel on December 6, 2011, that when he raised technical issues about whether nuclear waste cleanup was being done right at the Hanford Site in Washington, he was taken off the project and exiled to the basement.
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