The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's openness has been a major issue throughout the crisis of contaminated drinking water in Flint, which has caused lead poisoning of some children. One aspect of the openness issue is the ability of agency employees to speak with journalists; another is unfulfilled FOIA requests.
Bill Funk began his career in environmental journalism from an unlikely place — law school. After graduating from Vermont Law School with a Master's in Environmental Policy and a JD, he decided that instead of litigating environmental issues he’d rather write about them. Coming from a non-traditional journalism background hasn’t slowed his progress as a journalist though – Bill received four, count’em, four fellowships and awards in 2015.
"Conservationists have announced the “amazing discovery” of a previously unknown lion population in a remote north-western region of Ethiopia, confirming local reports with camera trap photographs for the first time."
"The Senate on Tuesday voted against six amendments to its broad energy reform bill that pursued partisan priorities on political spending and conservation."
"Poor, heavily Hispanic neighborhoods shoulder a disproportionate fracking wastewater burden in Texas' booming Eagle Ford".
"£6bn wiped off stock market value of oil company as investors react to losses and increasing Deepwater Horizon liablities".
"Los Angeles prosecutors filed criminal charges against the Southern California Gas company on Tuesday over a huge methane leak near the city that has forced thousands of residents from their homes since October."
"An industrial chemical is showing up in trout from the Great Lakes. It’s called perfluoro-1-butane sulfonamide, or FBSA."
"The Environmental Protection Agency was ordered Friday to begin issuing long-overdue rules aimed at stopping mining companies from declaring bankruptcy to avoid pollution cleanups."
"What do we know about the human health effects of neonicotinoids? Astonishingly little. Here’s why scientists say that isn’t good enough."
