Reporting Resources

 

Environment and Energy

Please let the Institute know about links that do not work, or about sources we should add. If a resource here helped you in covering a story, please let us know by emailing al.cross@uky.edu.

JOURNALISM

Environment Writer, http://www.environmentwriter.org
This source focuses "on journalism on environmental and natural resources issues."

Society of Environmental Journalists, http://www.sej.org/
"The source for journalists reporting on the environment."

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Energy Information Administration, www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/qcr_sum.html You can get data on U.S. coal production, exports, imports, receipts, prices, consumption and quality from the Quarterly Coal Report. It has energy tables and maps for every state, which could make good graphics for illustrating stories on various energy issues. Each map is accompanied by a set of "quick facts," which can tell more than the map. Each state map is accompanied by tables that compare the state's energy resources, prices, production, consumption, taxes and certain energy-related environmental programs with the rest of the nation. For example, in 2005 the average price for 1,000 cubic feet of of natural gas at a wellhead in Kentucky was $6.84, well under the national average of $7.33.

Environmental Protection Agency, http://www.epa.gov
"The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people. "

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, http://www.osmre.gov
"Our mission is to carry out the requirements of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in cooperation with States and Tribes. Our primary objectives are to ensure that coal mines are operated in a manner that protects citizens and the environment during mining and assures that the land is restored to beneficial use following mining, and to mitigate the effects of past mining by aggressively pursuing reclamation of abandoned coal mines."

National Agroforestry Center, http://www.unl.edu/nac/
"NAC conducts research on how to design and install forested buffers to protect water quality and develops and delivers technology on a broad suite of agroforestry practices to natural resource professionals who directly assist landowners and communities."

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, http://www.asmfc.org/
"The Commission serves as a deliberative body, coordinating the conservation and management of the states shared near shore fishery resources – marine, shell, and anadromous – for sustainable use."

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS

Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, http://www.appalachian-center.org -
A regional law and policy group that says it “seeks fundamental changes in compliance, implementation and enforcement of major environmental laws in Central Appalachia,” including an end to mountaintop-removal coal mining.

Earth Justice, http://www.earthjustice.org/
"Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. "

Environmental Working Group, http://www.ewg.org/
"Our team of scientists, engineers, policy experts, lawyers and computer programmers pores over government data, legal documents, scientific studies and our own laboratory tests to expose threats to your health and the environment, and to find solutions." This site also has database on agricultural subsidy programs.

Environmental Defense Fund, http://www.environmentaldefense.org/home.cfm
"Environmental Defense is dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including future generations...We are guided by scientific evaluation of environmental problems, and the solutions we advocate will be based on science, even when it leads in unfamiliar directions. We work to create solutions that win lasting economic and social support because they are nonpartisan, cost-effective and fair."

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, http://www.peer.org
"As a service organization assisting federal & state public employees, PEER allows public servants to work as 'anonymous activists' so that agencies must confront the message, rather than the messenger"

National Environmental Trust, http://www.net.org/
"The National Environmental Trust is a non-profit, non-partisan organization established in 1994 to inform citizens about environmental problems and how they affect our health and quality of life...NET's public education campaigns use modern communication techniques and the latest scientific studies to translate complex environmental issues for citizens."

Natural Resources Defense Council, http://www.nrdc.org
"The Natural Resources Defense Council's purpose is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends. We work to restore the integrity of the elements that sustain life -- air, land and water -- and to defend endangered natural places. We seek to establish sustainability and good stewardship of the Earth as central ethical imperatives of human society."

Southern Environmental Law Center, http://www.southernenvironment.org
"For the past 20 years, the Southern Environmental Law Center has used the full power of the law to conserve clean water, healthy air, wild lands, and livable communities throughout the Southeast. As the biggest, most powerful environmental organization headquartered in the South, SELC is able to work simultaneously in all three branches of government, and in all of our six focus states, to comprehensively address the most urgent problems facing our region."

RESEARCH TOOLS

The Environment Directory, http://www.webdirectory.com
An environment search engine, to find people and information on a wide range of topics.

Environmental Media Services, http://www.ems.org
EMS is a nonprofit communications clearinghouse "dedicated to expanding media coverage of critical environmental and public health issues."

EcoGateway News & Information Directories, http://www.ecoiq.com/onlineresources/directories/newsinfo/index.html
Includes directories for news releases, opinion articles, news digests, online periodicals, e-mail periodicals, online environmental news media, and other media resources.

Environmental Health News, http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/
News and reports on environmental links to health and related policy issues, compiled by Environmental Health Sciences, are searchable.

Environmental Health Center, http://www.nsc.org/ehc.htm
Includes Chemical backgrounders; a directory of FAQs on environmental issues, organized by topic; a comprehensive environmental glossary; peer-reviewed guidebooks for env'l journalists.

Coal Impoundment Location and Information System, www.coalimpoundment.com, has general information on impoundments in West Virginia and Kentucky, and emergency information for those in West Virginia. Impoundments in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee will be added to the database.

UMWA, http://www.umwa.org/mining/colminrs.shtml
This site explains what exactly coal miners do.

Science News Online, http://www.sciencenews.org/
Online science magazine. Includes searchable, database which allows you to call up issues from 1996 to the present.

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues helps non-metropolitan media define the public agenda in their communities, through strong reporting and commentary on local issues and on broader issues that have local impact. Its initial focus area is Central Appalachia, but as an arm of the University of Kentucky it has a statewide mission, and it has national scope. It has academic collaborators at Appalachian State University, East Tennessee State University, Eastern Kentucky University, Georgia College and State University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Marshall University, Middle Tennessee State University, Ohio University, Southeast Missouri State University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Washington and Lee University, West Virginia University and the Knight Community Journalism Fellows Program at the University of Alabama. It is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University of Kentucky, with additional financial support from the Ford Foundation. To get notices of Rural Blog postings and other Institute news, click here.