"Railroads that haul oil trains through Washington state will need to report whether they could afford around $700 million to pay for a derailment and spill, under a recently finalized state rule."
"There was a huge global spike in one of the most potent greenhouse gases driving climate change over the last decade, and the U.S. may be the biggest culprit, according a new Harvard University study."
"Federal regulators say corrosion on the outside of an oil pipeline was the cause of a major crude spill on the Santa Barbara coast last year."
"The Sooner State has switched strategies, limiting not just the depth, but amount of wastewater than oil and gas producers can pump back underground."
"The prospect of President Barack Obama tapping Sri Srinivasan for the Supreme Court is spawning a sharp debate among at least one part of the Democrats’ liberal grass roots — environmentalists turned off by his high-profile defense of giant fossil fuel companies."
"Gary Southern, the last of six former Freedom Industries officials to face sentencing, will spend 30 days in jail and pay a $20,000 fine for his role in pollution crimes that caused the January 2014 Elk River chemical spill that contaminated the drinking water supply for hundreds of thousands of people in the Kanawha Valley and surrounding area."
The reports aren't released to the taxpayers who funded them but the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project publishes leaked copies. Here are 17 of the latest, from air to water, food to fuel, and much more.
Maine passed a law in 2015 that allowed railroads to keep oil-train routing information from the public — over the governor's veto. In the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting's Pine Tree Watchdog, Dave Sherwood reports how the provision was a bait-and-switch.
"A bipartisan group of 17 governors today signed the Governors’ Accord for a New Energy Future – a joint commitment to pursuing modern electric grids, as well as cleaner energy and transportation solutions."
Russia and Saudi Arabia have said they will freeze oil production if others do -- but Iran wants to ramp up production after the lifting of sanctions.
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