The San Juan Basin in the Four Corners region of the Southwest emits substantially more methane per unit of energy produced than most major gas-producing areas, according to a Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting analysis of industry data reported to the federal government.
Author Archives: Tom Knudson
Senior Reporter
Tom Knudson is a reporter for Reveal, covering the environment. He is the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes and a 2004 award for global environmental reporting from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Reuters. Over the years, he has reported on a wide range of subjects, including the abuse of migrant forest workers in the American West, overfishing in Mexico's Sea of Cortez and the environmental degradation of California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. Knudson is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.
Posted inSustainability
How America’s tallest dam nearly overflowed
After the water in Lake Oroville reached the highest level since 1985, officials released more water from the dam through its main spillway. But a massive sinkhole split the spillway, prompting the evacuation of 180,000 in nearby communities. We built a 3D flyover of the time and charts to show what lead up to these events,
Posted inSustainability
He was supposed to protect the sea. Then he vanished from his ship
Hundreds of miles out to sea, fisheries observer Keith Davis was the odd man out, a scientific monitor and conspicuous informant in the company of mariners he did not know. He carried no badge, no weapon. One day, he disappeared from the ship.
Posted inEnvironment
7 proposals that could save animals from cruel traps
Trap reform efforts are stirring in Congress, which has not held hearings on the issue in more than 30 years, and more than a half-dozen states.
Posted inEnvironment
America’s trapping boom relies on cruel and grisly tools
The resurgence of a frontier tradition – commercial fur trapping – is taking a toll on wildlife. The activity is legal, but it’s carried out in ways that often inflict prolonged suffering and capture many species by mistake.
Posted inEnvironment
Lion hunting is booming, and Americans do most of the killing
Trophy lion hunting is a booming business that has taken the lives of more than 10,000 animals over the past two decades. And most of that killing has been carried out by Americans.
Posted inEnvironment
The other Audubon: The one that allows golf courses to kill birds
Audubon International, a third-party organization that certifies golf courses, allows the killing of nuisance birds. It has no ties to the bird-friendly National Audubon Society, which often opposes the very developments that Audubon International approves
Posted inEnvironment
Shot and gassed: Thousands of protected birds killed annually
More than 300 species of migratory birds have been killed legally across the U.S. since 2011 to protect a wide range of business activities and public facilities under what’s called the “depredation permit” program, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data.
Posted inEnvironment, The Secrets of the Drought
As water dwindles, lawmakers seek access to confidential well logs
In California, well completion reports are considered confidential under a 64-year-old state law. A hearing will consider new legislation that would make these well logs public.
Posted inClimate Change, Environment, The Secrets of the Drought
Overpumping of groundwater is contributing to global sea level rise
So much water is being pumped out of the ground worldwide that it is contributing to global sea level rise, a phenomenon tied largely to warming temperatures and climate change.