The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "department of energy" ...
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C-HIT: Toxic Laundry Emissions
Industrial laundries in New England have recently come under intense scrutiny by the EPA, ever since the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) found that volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) were being released at a facility in Waterbury, CT. According to Steve Rapp, Chief of the Air Technical Unit, EPA Region 1, the problem is widespread and significant. “The industrial laundries are grossly under-reporting their VOCs,” said Rapp. “It’s a total sleeper.” The problem stems from the process of laundering shop towels, which are often contaminated with toxic solvents. When improperly cleaned, the solvents are vaporized and emitted to the surrounding air. This article investigated this little-known source of air pollution, shedding light on the industry’s practices and its impact on air quality and public health.
Tags: Volatile organic compunds; VOC's; DEEP; air quality; public health
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Green Energy: Contracts, Connections and the Collapse of Solyndra
Beginning in March, the Center's Ronnie Greene and ABC's Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross exposed flaws in the Department of Energy's billion-dollar spending spree, revealed deep links between Obama campaign bundlers and energy contracts and foreshadowed the financial and political storm that later engulfed Solyndra. Our reporting for "Green Energy: Contracts, Connections and the Collapse of Solyndra" broke ground before Solyndra's meltdown, and went well beyond the company in revealing a web of connections entangling a department lauded for its innovation. Working as full-reporting partners, our stories tied major Obama donors to lucrative green energy contracts for everything from electric cars to diesel substitutes. After over a year of reporting, we produced 50,000 words for the Center's website, thousands more on ABC's site and broadcasts on World News Tonight, Good Morning America and Nightline. Our stories, built from FOIA requests that yielded thousands of contract, financial and ethics documents, served as a template for national media reports that followed.
Tags: contracts; green energy; Obama; green energy; spending
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Sun in a Bottle
"Sun in a Bottle is an exploration of how a vision of unlimited power - fusion energy - has seduced scientists and corrupted the scientific process."
Tags: fusion; energy; nuclear fusion; ITER; fusion power; Department of Energy; "bubble fusion";
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Out in the Cold
The story details the Department of Labor's Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, a "worker's-comp program for former nuclear-weapons workers that acknowledges the link between long-term radiation exposure and several types of cancer, and promises compensation for cancer victims." While the department maintains that the program is "claimant-friendly," the program puts the "burden of proof of radiation exposure on sick and dying claimants who have no means to do so."
Tags: EEOICPA; nuclear weapons; radiation exposure; cancer; compensation; worker-comp; claimants
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Windfall
The Department of the Interior, "particularly under the Bush Administration," has let energy companies neglect paying billions of dollars to the government "for oil and natural gas they pump on federal land and federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico." Over the course of a year, the Times reported the various aspects of this story, resulting in five investigations by the inspector general, including two inquiries involving the Justice Department.
Tags: Oil; natural gas; energy; royalty relief; Interior Department; gas pumped on federal land
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Lethal and Leaking
In Hanford, WA millions of gallons of nuclear waste have been stored underground. The Department of Energy has been working to clean up the site since the early 1990s. However due to engineering miscalculations, the development of a treatment plant is behind schedule. Errors such as defective equipment and other mistakes that risk the safety of the plant have forced the price of the clean up to triple.
Tags: Department of Energy; environment; nuclear waste; treatment plant; construction; construction delays; Bechtel; ecology; toxic waste
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Prying Open America's Spy Agencies
The year long investigations looks into the spying abuses and activies of intelligence agencies and examines the reforms that are being made in the CIA since September 11.
Tags: CIA; spying; reforms; September 11, 2001; intelligece establishments; FBI; Energy Department; radiation monitoring; Muslim; National Clandestine Service;
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Ohio's Nuclear Legacy: troubled past, uncertain future
The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant is "in the midst of a multibillion environmental cleanup that may eventually be the most expensive ever in Ohio. Meanwhile, untold numbers of sick workers are seeking compensation for their workplace illness, some dying before the government acts on their claims. The story revealed how the Department of Energy ignored state and federal environmental laws- even barring regulators from the plant site- then enforced a code of silence that kept the plant's practices a secret."
Tags: nuclear; environmental laws; Department of Energy; USEC Inc.;
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Natural Gas
The authors investigated the price of natural gas in Mobile, AL and compared it to neighboring communities in Southeast states. They found that the gas in Alabama, particularly in Mobile, was more expensive than other regions, with no clear explanation for the price spike.
Tags: natural gas; energy; power; Public Service Commission; FOIA; Department of Energy; energy pricing
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"Los Alamos"
Using documents and information from a whistleblower, this report details a list of security risks and potentially lethal radioactive hazards in and around the nation's premiere nuclear weapons laboratory.
Tags: nuclear material; radioactive hazards; whistleblower; security breach; University of California; Department of Energy; DOE