Climate change may have made an unexpected appearance at the raucous 2020 presidential debate last night, but it's equally important to quiz state and local candidates on the topic too. The latest TipSheet offers environment and energy journalists a list of 10 key climate change questions to ask in reporting elections in your coverage area.
"An Unearthed and HuffPost investigation identified at least eight trade associations the companies failed to disclose in transparency reports."
"The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to overhaul the way communities test their water for lead, a policy change that will be pitched ahead of Election Day as a major environmental achievement for a president not noted for his conservation record."
"Companies are increasingly setting their own goals for carbon neutrality in the absence of a federal plan to address global warming, bracing their business for the stark financial realities wrought by climate change."
"Almost 40 Democratic senators wrote to the Commission on Presidential Debates on Wednesday urging questions focused on climate change to be included in the presidential debates."
The Public Interest Network runs organizations committed to our vision of a better world, a set of core values, and a strategic approach to social change.
The Nina Mason Pulliam Award judges chose "Polluter's Paradise" as the "best of the best," after reviewing all the first-place winners of SEJ's 2020 Awards for Reporting on the Environment. The $10,000 prize and congratulations go to Tristan Baurick, Joan Meiners, Gordon Russell and Sara Sneath of The Times-Picayune and The Advocate; and Lylla Younes, Al Shaw and Claire Perlman of ProPublica.
"Four former heads of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Democrats and Republicans, on Monday issued a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration’s record on the environment after the current administrator said the agency is focused on “work that has been neglected for years.”"
More revelations of Trump administration duplicity on the science front, per the new WatchDog opinion column, which reports on a scoop about political appointees trying to warp weekly public health data to ensure they don’t undercut Trump’s political messaging. Oh, and Bob Woodward’s new book affirming the president knew of COVID-19’s dangers early on, but deliberately played them down.
Although the realities of the pandemic may mean fewer state and local ballot measures in the upcoming election — and the presidential contest is drawing much of the spotlight — they can still be potentially fruitful stories for reporters willing to seek them out. Here are eight top ways to track this year’s environment and energy ballot measures, from the latest Reporter’s Toolbox.
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