Policy

Environmental devastation. Corporate capture. Disinformation’s diffusion. Hostility to news media. All this may seem overwhelming for environmental reporters. But for WatchDog Opinion, it means that journalism must rise to the challenge, take the truth seriously, report with conviction, cover corruption and tell the stories of the many whose stories are not being told. A case for why Trump 2.0 presents that opportunity.

As the Biden White House rushes to enact environment and energy policy before Inauguration Day, an obscure law leaves room for the incoming administration to claw them back. At risk: strengthened emissions standards for vehicles and power, tougher energy efficiency standards and plans to replace lead pipes. The latest EJ TransitionWatch explains how the reversal works — and why it might not.

An incoming Trump administration hostile to the very idea of environmental justice likely means the rollback of numerous policies and regulations designed to protect disadvantaged communities, cuts to an important “whole-of-government” initiative and downsizing of key federal environmental justice offices. The latest EJ TransitionWatch examines what’s at stake. And for more, see our Topics on the Beat page on environmental justice.

The fossil fuel industry’s outsized climate policy role in the U.S.’s most populous state is the core of award-winning coverage from investigative journalist Aaron Cantú for nonprofit newsroom Capital & Main. In the new Inside Story Q&A, Cantú shares some of what challenged him in his reporting, what surprised him most and a lesson learned.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to pull the United States out of the Paris climate treaty and to maximize U.S. fossil fuel production. And as the transition to his incoming administration unfolds, he has named a cabinet replete with climate action skeptics. But will all that stop the transition to cleaner power? The latest EJ TransitionWatch has an assessment.

Public health is an environmental story (think links between infectious disease and climate change, for example). So Trump administration nominees to head leading U.S. public health agencies — including vaccine skeptics, COVID-19 contrarians and physicians with little public health experience — are a story for environmental journalists to watch closely. The latest EJ TransitionWatch helps with a rundown of five top picks. Plus, the latest health headlines from EJ Today.

The closest thing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has to a press policy is actually its scientific integrity policy. But as WatchDog Opinion writer Joseph Davis writes in the latest EJ TransitionWatch, the EPA’s scientific integrity policy is under direct attack by a powerful congressman. What’s behind the attack? And could the EPA’s science be under assault next?

Might the incoming Trump administration attempt to blot out any data that undermines his environmental policies, especially around global warming? Many recall, for instance, the 2017 disappearing of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s informative climate change web pages. The new EJ TransitionWatch column explores the concern and offers a heartening assessment of the prospects of preserving these archives of essential information.

Under the last Trump White House — and in quite a few presidential administrations — shoddy treatment of journalists by federal agency press offices has been the norm. And WatchDog Opinion worries it will be even worse in the new Trump administration. So it’s time to remind public information officers what we journalists fairly expect. From the latest WatchDog, an updated reporter’s bill of rights.