If you want to know whether an oil train is going by your community, just go down to the railroad tracks and watch for it. But don't ask the railroad or the state. In many cases, they don't think you can be trusted with this secret.
EPA's Plan, approved back on January 15, 2009, mandates giving "understandable, timely, accurate, and consistent information to the public." The plan laudably emphasizes coordination with other agencies — but it also leads to strong message control.
"Groups opposed to the $5 million ExxonMobil settlement are worried that drinking water for 750,000 Arkansas residents isn't protected."
"Fires burning in drought-parched California on Tuesday menaced thousands of structures as firefighters struggled to corral the blazes there and elsewhere in the U.S. West, authorities said."
"Several earthquakes shook Oklahoma on Monday as the state experiences a sharp increase in the frequency of tremors linked to wastewater disposal from gas and oil drilling, including from fracking, state and federal officials said."
"The US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has doubled down on a demand that railroads notify state officials when large shipments of crude oil move through their towns, even as two of the largest rail companies fight in court to keep some of the information hidden from the public."
"The Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Mich. today teems with kayakers paddling amid swimming turtles, buzzing dragonflies and fish that leap from the water—with few visible scars of the environmental disaster that struck the riverside community five years ago."
"Flames roared unchecked through heavy timber for a third day in Montana's Glacier National Park, where the main road has been closed through the eastern half of the park, along with two campgrounds, during its busiest time of year."
"It’s growing increasingly difficult to see a light at the end of the tunnel that the U.S. Chemical Safety Board finds itself in these days."
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