"The Ohio Senate and House have agreed on a new state budget that includes language to ban Rights of Nature enforcement. Gov. Mike DeWine signed the legislation into law on Thursday."
"For the past five years, wind developers in Ohio have faced what they describe as among the most restrictive turbine-siting rules anywhere in the United States."
"Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit in Ingham County Circuit Court on Thursday that seeks to decommission the Enbridge Line 5 oil pipeline across the environmentally sensitive Straits of Mackinac."
"Lake Erie’s Sandusky Bay is already struggling with a species of toxin-producing algae, another sign that the rest of the lake’s western basin is likely headed for another massive bloom this summer."
While environmental journalists often focus on regulatory wrestling matches in Washington, D.C., a seasoned New York Times investigative reporter argues the most important stories are those in the real communities where bureaucratic impacts are felt. Three-time Pulitzer winner Eric Lipton makes the case for public service in journalism that tells the environment story from the outside in.
"The Wilderness Society is suing the Trump administration to try to force the release of documents on its decision to lift restrictions on mining upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota."
It’s a category of more than 4,000 industrial chemicals that affect our lives nearly every day — and many of which are toxic. So what do journalists need to know to report on the emerging contaminants known as PFAS? Our most recent Issue Backgrounder offers a detailed primer on what PFAS are, where they come from, what their health effects are and how they might be cleaned up.
Millions of people across the United States are believed to be drinking PFAS-contaminated water. And a growing database could prove an invaluable resource for environmental journalists trying to get a handle on that public health risk. Our latest biweekly Reporter’s Toolbox, recently refocused on data journalism tools and techniques, explains how to tap the expanding PFAS data.
"Documents that the federal Environmental Protection Agency tried to keep confidential show that its staffers criticized how Minnesota regulators drafted a key permit for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine, and concluded that the permit would violate federal law because it lacked pollution limits based on the state’s water quality standards."
"The very first trail I step on is sand — and not just a dusting of the stuff either, but the soft, deep, undulating variety you’d expect to find near a beach. In honor of its designation in February as the 61st and newest national park, I’ve chosen to work my way across Indiana Dunes — formerly a national lakeshore — on a sunny Saturday in April, and picked West Beach as my starting point."
