Policy

It’s a political knot with the potential to tangle the fossil energy industry, the clean energy industry … or both. Environmental journalists looking to better report on the impacts of permitting reform can start with our latest Backgrounder, which explores the issue’s recent history and the competing visions that have stalled changes. There’s also the “backroom problem.” Plus, get a rundown of key actors.

Attacks of all kinds on U.S. journalists clearly hamper a free press. And environmental journalists are not spared such aggressions, especially when covering contested places like pipeline construction sites. WatchDog Opinion outlines the problem and explores how journalists might be spared from such violations, including with a prospective law explicitly protecting journalists from assault.

The new proposed limits on climate pollution from existing power plants will be a significant story for years to come, but one with many moving parts and numerous complications. The new Issue Backgrounder explores the larger context and history of the proposed rule, and provides six key developments to watch as you track its evolution.

Not only did the huge legal settlement in the Dominion Voting Systems libel suit against Fox Corp. help reinforce media libel protections set out decades ago in New York Times v. Sullivan. It also served as a reminder for environmental journalists that the “actual malice” standard is a bulwark for their own (often negative) reporting on big corporations. WatchDog Opinion explains.

With the Society of Environmental Journalists’ 32nd annual conference in Boise now behind us, humorist David Helvarg offers a sharp-witted, albeit affectionate, skewering of the five-day gathering, everything from the host state’s politics to the innumerable sessions and the final blowout party. Prepare for punnage. Plus, check out the evolving multimedia coverage of the event, and watch for session audio recordings to come.

A new government-organized network of environmental justice assistance centers may not only assist the community groups applying for billions in federal funds but could also help point environmental journalists toward undercovered stories on the beat. The latest TipSheet explains how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiative will work and how to locate the centers for your reporting.

The complicated interplay between climate change and trauma, poorly understood and little covered, is holding back the response by individuals and communities to the realities of the climate crisis, argues the head of a network of mental health and other organizations. Here’s what he has found when it comes to how climate-generated anguish is blocking climate solutions and what can be done about it.

The debate over drilling on public lands goes back decades. But now our view of how — or even whether — to use public lands faces the unprecedented reality of climate change, fire, drought, floods and the transition to clean energy. The latest Backgrounder explains how we got here and where the current battles rage, including over the Alaskan North Slope’s massive Willow Project.