Reporting on environmental stories often leads to the state legislature, where key material can be frustratingly hard to access. Whether that’s because the state is deliberately hiding information, has poor systems for sharing it or isn’t even tracking it, there are ways to get what you need. Four seasoned environment reporters offer tips, tricks and commiseration.
"Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills Saturday that would require large corporations operating in the state to disclose both their carbon footprints and their climate-related financial risks starting in 2026."
In the first of a two-parter for our 2024 Journalists’ Guide to Environment & Energy, TipSheet looks at what climate-driven disasters mean for the home insurance market. Storms, floods and fire rip through communities, yet a federal insurance program falls short, lawmakers shy away from real reform and insurers grow hesitant to cover the risks, while homeowners often attempt to rebuild in the same problematic locales. Plus, see part two on extreme weather and insurance.
"The largest dam removal project in United States history is underway along the California-Oregon border. The project will remove four dams on the Klamath River. Work has already begun on removing the smallest of the four dams."
In the Coachella Valley east of Los Angeles, the massive Salton Sea is rapidly drying up, threatening vulnerable immigrant communities in a growing toxic environment. The Living Downstream podcast reported extensively on these hazards, winning third place in the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Awards for Reporting on the Environment’s explanatory reporting, small, category, in 2022. Inside Story spoke with one of the prizewinners.
"The two-and-a-half-week-old sea otter cried for help. Stranded in a tide pool after heavy winds and strong surf near the edge of the bay, it was ashore and alone."
"The Oak Fire, which burned roughly 20,000 acres west of Yosemite National Park last summer, was devastating to the area's Indigenous tribes — including the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation."
"Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday announced that he will sign the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, Sen. Scott Wiener’s greenhouse gas emissions disclosure requirement bill."
"California lawmakers have passed a bill that would require large U.S.-based companies doing business in the Golden State to publicly disclose their annual greenhouse gas emissions — the first such requirement in the nation."
Seattle-based correspondent Brett Walton has a habit of adding extra days to his reporting schedules. In this FEJ StoryLog, Walton shares how he used one such buffer to stretch a grant and produce not just one story on California’s small drinking water systems, but a second on the aftermath of wildfire on another town’s water system, plus finish a third pending project on household water debt.
Advertisement 
