For decades, Congress has refused to release taxpayer-funded reports by the Congressional Research Service. Fortunately, the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project gets them and releases them. Here are some new explainers that may be of use to environmental journalists.
"A study in a rural Ohio county where oil and gas drilling is booming found air pollution levels near well sites higher than those in downtown Chicago."
"More than 5 million Californians — most of them in Los Angeles and Kern counties — live near an oil or gas well, and expanding drilling in the state could increase their exposure to health risks, according to a report released Wednesday by a national environmental group."
"ODESSA, Texas -- Elaine Beadle initially thought the odor creeping into her home on this city's west side was a sewer leak."
"Climate change activists have opened a new front in their fight against fossil fuels at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission."
"BISMARCK, N.D. -- One year after a pipeline rupture flooded a wheat field in northwestern North Dakota with more than 20,000 barrels of crude, Tesoro Corp. is still working around the clock cleaning up the oil spill -- one of the largest to happen onshore in U.S. history."
"Temperatures below 20 degrees Fahrenheit froze the valve on the back of Greg Bish's frack truck. To thaw it, he fetched a blowtorch and put the 4-inch flame to the metal. The explosion blew him 75 feet, over a 7-foot-tall barbed-wire fence, and killed him."
"AUSTIN — Susan Combs, the state comptroller, stirred controversy last month when she said Texas’ growing wind energy industry should 'stand on its own two feet.'"
"TransCanada Corp.’s $11-billion Energy East pipeline project has run into another stumbling block in Quebec as public opposition mounts over a possible threat to the endangered beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River."
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