SEJournal looks ahead to key issues in the coming year with this "2022 Journalists’ Guide to Energy & Environment" special report. Check out the guide's various Backgrounders, TipSheets, WatchDog reports an overview analysis.
A trove of confidential documents about a well-known groundwater pollution problem helped journalists Paul LaRocco and David M. Schwartz uncover how much had actually been hidden about the contamination’s severity and how it could have been kept from worsening. In the latest Inside Story Q&A, LaRocco and Schwartz share the story behind their award-winning investigation.
A crisis of lead in drinking water affects thousands of U.S. communities, but 2022 will bring new focus to the problem as new Biden administration plans play out following passage of a $15 billion fund to replace lead service lines. TipSheet outlines the problem and the impact of a regulation carried over from the Trump era. Plus, seven reporting approaches to local and state-level stories.
"The Sitka spruce soaring more than 180 feet skyward has stood on this spot on Prince of Wales Island for centuries. While fierce winds have contorted the towering trunks of its neighbors, the spruce’s trunk is ramrod straight. Standing apart from the rest of the canopy, it ascends to the height of a 17-story building."
"Scientists have found that the Corn Belt region of the U.S. Midwest, which produces 75% of U.S. corn, has lost around 35% of its most fertile topsoil since European colonization in the 1600s."
"Williams Cos., one of the biggest transporters of natural gas in the U.S., said an intentional release of a powerful greenhouse gas detected by satellite was caused by work on one of its pipelines."
"Six new solar plants on former Virginia coal mines are among the first such projects in the United States - and could help fossil-fuel communities shift to a greener economy".
"Edward O. Wilson, a biologist and author who conducted pioneering work on biodiversity, insects and human nature — and won two Pulitzer Prizes along the way — died on Sunday in Burlington, Mass. He was 92."
"Thomas E. Lovejoy III, an ecologist who dedicated his career to preserving the Amazon rainforest and educating Washington policymakers and the public about the dangers of climate change, died Dec. 25 at his home in McLean, Va. He was 80."
"The Biden administration said on Thursday it has offered Monolith Nebraska LLC an up to $1.04 billion conditional loan guarantee for a project to make clean hydrogen, in its first use of an office that has tens of billions of dollars in financing."
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