Wyo. Republican Fights Ban on Controversial Climate-Science Standards
"A Republican lawmaker in Wyoming is taking a stand in favor of teaching climate science in the classroom."
Source: National Journal, 12/24/2014
Science
Interior Dept. Updates Scientific Integrity Policy and Creates Handbook
"The Department of the Interior came out late yesterday with the 3.0 version of its scientific integrity policy, along with a new handbook that describes how the policy will be implemented. The new materials are simplified, streamlined, and more clear, bringing the department once again to the front of the pack in the Obama administration’s quest to create strong scientific integrity standards within federal agencies and departments. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is expected to speak about the new policy in a keynote address today before the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco."
Source: Union of Concerned Scientists, 12/19/2014
"Climate Change: the Readers' Choice Winner"
The claim that man-made climate change is a hoax won the "Lie of the Year" poll among readers of Politifact.
Source: PolitiFact, 12/18/2014
Remembering the Genius Who Got BPA Out of Your Water Bottles, And More
Theo Colborn, who pioneered research on endocrine-disrupting chemicals, has died at age 87.
"It was the late 1970s and Theo Colborn was, like pretty much everyone else in the ’70s, getting divorced. She was in her 50s and already retired from a career as a pharmacist.
Source: Grist, 12/16/2014
"Rachel Carson and Her Sisters: Extraordinary Women Who Have Shaped America’s Environment"
SEJ Publication Types:
Topics on the Beat:
Visibility:
"Scientist With Deep Industry Ties Being Considered for Key EPA Job"
"A scientist with deep ties to the chemical industry is one of two finalists to lead the office at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that determines which chemicals can make people sick, and in what doses."
Source: Center for Public Integrity, 12/09/2014
"Streisand: Inhofe 'Frightening'"
"Singer Barbra Streisand took to Twitter Tuesday night to attack the Senate’s best-known climate change skeptic."
Source: The Hill, 12/04/2014
Read the Congressional Reports You're Not Supposed To Read
Journalists hurrying to get up to speed on environmental or energy issues can get objective background from reports by the Congressional Research Service (an arm of the Library of Congress), which does not release them to the taxpaying public that funded them. We thank the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project for publishing them.
SEJ Publication Types:
Topics on the Beat:
Visibility:
House Bills Would Stifle Science at EPA
Three GOP-backed House bills attacking science at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are unlikely to become law in the current Congress — or the next. The Obama administration has threatened to veto all three, which the House passed in November along party lines. None is likely to muster enough support to override a veto.
SEJ Publication Types:
Topics on the Beat:
Visibility:
Free Speech for Science Advisors? EPA Loosens the Leash
EPA has issued a "clarification" of its SAB scientist-muzzling policy, which acknowledges that SAB members are free to talk to reporters — mostly — as long as they are speaking for themselves. Still, the Society of Professional Journalists wrote EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy December 1 declaring their dissatisfaction with the clarification.
SEJ Publication Types:
Topics on the Beat:
Visibility:
Pages
Advertisement 
