"A Silicon Valley company is claiming a breakthrough in a decades-old quest to develop fuel cells that can supply affordable and relatively clean electricity. Google, Bank of America, Wal-Mart and other large corporations have been testing the devices, which will be formally introduced on Wednesday."
"At least 31 more coal-ash impoundments across the country -- including two in West Virginia -- have been found to have polluted nearby groundwater, wetlands and streams, according to a report issued Wednesday by two national environmental groups. The report brings to more than 100 the total number of sites where coal-ash disposal has been linked to contamination of water supplies with toxic pollutants including arsenic, cadmium and selenium."
"The Vermont Senate blocked efforts by Entergy Corp. to win a 20-year license renewal for its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, an action that could encourage opponents of nuclear energy in other states."
SEJ wrote White House Communication Director Dan Pfeiffer asking for an end to the practice of requiring permission from the press office at federal agencies before reporters can talk to federal employees — and requiring Saddam-style PIO "minders" to sit in on interviews.
Jim Morris of the Sunlight Foundation reports on the Project on Government Oversight's (POGO) so-far unsuccessful efforts to FOIA the data.
John Wonderlich of the Sunlight Foundation has been tracking the Federal Communications Commission plan.
Various trackers are sorting through and compiling ideas, comments, and agencies' progress towards meeting the deadline.
A former Occupational Safety and Health Administration official requested the data under the Freedom of Information Act in 2005, but was denied. He sued, won in 2007, and now has the data, but OSHA has still not released the data to the public.
Monongahela National Forest's public affairs officer recently directed employees there that, if contacted by national reporters on any issue or local reporters regarding national issues, they "cannot talk to the reporter"and suggested that the instructions came from "our Washington office."
"Oil and gas drillers haven't been pushed off federal lands by the Obama administration, an environmental group contends, so much as they have jumped at other opportunities."
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