Bloomberg BNA's Environment & Energy Reporting Wins Two Front Page Awards

ARLINGTON, Va., March 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bloomberg BNA's environment reporting has garnered the company two Front Page awards from the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild for stories published in 2011.

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The proud recipients include a team of Bloomberg BNA correspondents who took home the award for Distinguished Specialized Technical Reporting for an 11,000-word, 13-part package of stories titled "States Move Forward with Regulation, Amid Proliferation of Fracking Wells in the U.S."  The stories published Dec. 9, 2011, discussed fracking, the controversial technique for extracting natural gas, and the environmental issues and regulations involved.  Headed by Tripp Baltz, the team included Martha Kessler, Nora Macaluso, Lorraine McCarthy, Jerry Silverman, Mark Wolski, Bebe Raupe and Nancy Moore.

Fracking has generated heavy media scrutiny in recent years, but the reporting by Bloomberg BNA correspondents provided one of the most comprehensive analyses of how individual states are regulating the practice and how some states are actively resisting any federal intervention. The main story written by Baltz with contributions from other correspondents provided a broad overview of state activity and was accompanied by more detailed reports from individual state correspondents.

"These stories show the depth and breadth of our reporting thanks to our network of correspondents covering all 50 states," John Sullivan, Bloomberg BNA's director of environmental, health, and safety news, said. "The states are where most of the action on fracking is occurring, and we couldn't have provided this kind of comprehensive, detailed reporting without them."

Daily Environment Report's Amena H. Saiyid has won the Distinguished News Analysis award for "EPA Riders are Out of Spending Bill, But Analysts Say Battle Far From Over."

Saiyid's story, published April 13, 2011, came on the heels of the failed efforts by House Republicans to use an appropriations bill to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate on a number of fronts. That effort, she wrote, was merely the opening skirmish in what was shaping up to be a protracted battle in Congress over the future of environmental regulation. As Marty Hayden, Earthjustice's vice president for policy and legislation, put it: The spending bill was just "an opening act" for the battle to come.

"In our reporting, we try to be forward-looking and anticipate the issues that will be affecting our readers tomorrow," Sullivan said. "Amena's story does just that, indicating that congressional Republicans were not deterred and were intent on using all means possible to rein in EPA."

Both stories were produced by Bloomberg BNA's Environment, Health, and Safety Division, which has been reporting on developments in environmental policy and litigation since the Clean Air Act was enacted in 1970. Today, the division publishes six news services: Daily Environment Report, Environment Reporter, Occupational Safety & Health Reporter, International Environment Reporter, Chemical Regulation Reporter, and World Climate Change Report. In addition, the division has a full suite of reference and analysis products providing easy-to-understand explanations of complex environmental regulations as well as software tools to help companies comply with those regulations.

About Bloomberg BNA
Bloomberg BNA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bloomberg, is a leading source of legal, regulatory, and business information for professionals. Its network of more than 2,500 reporters, correspondents, and leading practitioners delivers expert analysis, news, practice tools, and guidance — the information that matters most to professionals.  Bloomberg BNA's authoritative coverage spans the full range of legal practice areas, including tax & accounting, labor & employment, intellectual property, banking & securities, employee benefits, health care, privacy & data security, human resources, and environment, health & safety.

SOURCE Bloomberg BNA