Trying to figure out the air quality in your coverage area? The EPA may not be much help. But this week's TipSheet suggests some effective work-arounds for your reporting. Get the backstory on ozone standards, tips on how to track ozone "nonattainment" for your area and learn why smog matters so much to public health.
A push for disclosure on hazardous air emissions from industrial hog farms, and reporting on how the coastal real estate industry works to block bad news about sea-level rise. That, plus the Bay Journal FOIAs the EPA over grant defunding, and a move in Congress towards a federal shield law, all in the latest WatchDog.
"Building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through low-income Eastern North Carolina counties would force people of color to bear more than their share of the risks posed by the nation’s power infrastructure, the NAACP said in a report released Tuesday."
"Virginia has taken a first step toward joining the East Coast's regional carbon-trading market, a move that would drive down the state's greenhouse gas emissions and help reshape the power sector in the traditional coal state."
"East Coast fishery managers Monday rejected a proposal backed by conservation groups to start setting harvest limits for Atlantic menhaden based on their role as food for other fish and wildlife, not merely their commercial value."
"North Carolina regulators will sanction The Chemours Co. for the release of an unregulated chemical into the Cape Fear River – the latest in a barrage of legal assaults facing the Delaware company in the Tar Heel State."
An EPA program that helps pay for municipal water infrastructure is facing Congressional appropriations scrutiny. But with the program looking like it may escape big cuts, it remains a reservoir of reportable local projects. Find out more in the latest TipSheet, plus get state-by-state resources.
"JESSUP, Pa.—The biggest new natural-gas power plant in a state awash with them is taking shape on a mountain ridge overlooking the community it cleaved apart."
Halloween may remind many of the spookier side of bats. But these unique flying mammals provide important ecosystem services — and that's just one of the many reasons why environmental reporters might want to write about them. This week's TipSheet looks at covering bats, the habitat loss that's leaving many species threatened and the growing fungal plague that's wiping out many colonies. Resources and more.
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