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TipSheet is a biweekly source for story ideas, background, interview leads and reporting tools for journalists who cover news of the environment.

For questions and comments, or to suggest future TipSheets, email the TipSheet Editor Joseph A. Davis at sejournaleditor@sej.org.

Journalists can receive TipSheet free by subscribing to the SEJournal Online, the digital news magazine of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. TipSheet is also available through the searchable archive below and via RSS feed.


Latest TipSheet Items

March 21, 2017

  • Proposed budget reductions for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could undermine the work of agencies as varied as National Weather Service and Sea Grant, as well as a satellite network informing much climate research. The latest TipSheet outlines NOAA stories that may emerge ... or vanish.

March 14, 2017

  • As the Trump administration proposes big cuts at environmental agencies like the U.S. EPA, the latest TipSheet explores how to dig up local angles from the budget action. Examples: Tracking changes at EPA regional offices and labs, at Superfund or at state revolving funds for clean water and safe drinking water programs.

March 7, 2017

  • As the Trump administration last week began its rollback of the Clean Water Rule, reporters are likely to see many more stories about wetlands permitting — especially on the local level. The latest TipSheet walks you through the Section 404 permitting maze and helps you find out what's happening in your locale and state.

February 28, 2017

  • As questions arise about how thoroughly the U.S. EPA's new administrator Scott Pruitt (left) will enforce environmental regulations, reporters can get at the story through EPA’s own exhaustive enforcement database. TipSheet provides a step-by-step on how to use data resources to follow trends and find bad actors. 

February 21, 2017

  • California's Oroville Dam has been in the news this month, as it threatened to fail, flooding nearby communities. But worsening dam safety is a national story with local angles throughout the United States. TipSheet runs down the risks and the resources, plus offers upcoming news hooks for dam stories in your community.

February 7, 2017

  • Dozens of renegade government Twitter accounts have sprung up, with claims they're run anonymously by employees of various agencies whose missions appear threatened by the Trump administration. TipSheet has the story, plus a list of more than 40 accounts of interest to environmental reporters. 

January 31, 2017

  • President Trump said on the campaign trail that he would "cancel" the Paris climate agreement. But could he really wreck the treaty? Or are other nations — and our own — already too far down the road to fully undermine the international pact? TipSheet takes a closer look.

  • Oil pipelines like the Keystone XL and Dakota Access are back at the center of a political firestorm, with a new executive order from President Trump just a few days into his new administration giving them the go-ahead. But it's just the beginning — many other pipelines, for both gas and oil, have been proposed.

  • While resurrecting the declining U.S. coal industry, as promised by the new administration, is probably not possible, it may not stop a lifting of the moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands. TipSheet looks at how the issue moved front and center, and whether the move would help coal country.

  • President Trump's characterization of climate change as a Chinese "hoax" and flirtations with the anti-vaccine movement have led many to conclude that he and his GOP allies are anti-science. A look at scientific integrity and funding in the new administration.

     

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