#SEJSpotlight: Christy George, Freelance Editor, Reporter, Producer and SEJ Volunteer
"Reps. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter Wednesday to six public relations-award firms, asking for details on their work with energy companies and whether they had aided them in campaigns to obscure the link between fossil fuels and climate change."
"A growing number of activists and academics are calling on the International Energy Agency to make its data free and available to everyone, ahead of the agency’s biennial board meeting in Paris next month."
"Over 70 member organizations in the coalition received charitable contributions in 2020 worth $1.67 million from big California utilities that see solar as the competition."
"The third weekend of August 2020 was a hectic time for California. Wildfires raged, smoke filled the air, and power shortages had forced state officials to order rolling blackouts, meaning hundreds of thousands of homes lacked air conditioning during a brutal heat wave."
Transparency and scientific integrity are good for public health and the environment, not to mention PR and politics. Yet WatchDog Opinion argues they’ve not been fully embraced by the Biden EPA. There are reasons for hope, however, in the form of a cataloging of violations and in an EPA-specific policy. Why it all matters for how environmental journalists do their jobs.
A key federal database on toxic chemicals, kneecapped under the Trump administration, is now back. The latest Reporter’s Toolbox reports that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week resurfaced the ChemView service, and explains the background law that fuels its data, while offering tips on how to make smart use of the database as it expands in coming years.
"Some of the world’s best-known corporations have clamored to show how seriously they are taking climate change, with an increasing number pledging to eliminate their carbon footprints in the decades ahead. But many of those firms are not yet doing nearly enough to back up their promises, according to a new analysis by the New Climate Institute, an independent organization based in Germany that promotes measures to slow Earth’s warming."