Across U.S., citizens fight for records

[Rose Siding]

FALL RIVER, Mass. -- Ed Lambert, Al Lima and Mike Miozza never thought of themselves as activists, just regular guys. Then an energy company announced plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal in this small community on the Taunton River. The men -- the mayor, a city planner and an engineer -- had nightmare visions of gas igniting into a huge fireball on the river, and asked for government-held reports that studied the threat to the town if the plant or a tanker were attacked.

But like many people who ask for government records these days, they didn't get what they were looking for. "It's a farce," Miozza says.

And it's happening across the country. To a Virginia homeowner seeking plans for a gas pipeline near his home. To Wyoming politicians worried about local dams. To an environmental group that wants the studies on 100-year floods and dam failures in a Southwest river canyon.

All asked for records, and all were turned down......MORE.......

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/03/12/across_us_citizens_fight_for_records/

[cornermouse]

1. Freedom of Information Act?

....What's that?

[Hoping4Change]

2. "It seems to us like a bad movie ... yet we're all living it."

This is unbelieveable. People want to know the danger these developments pose to their community and they're denied information that could their our community at risk.

"We're denied information that could put our community at risk," Lambert said during an interview in his sixth-floor office, the granite mills, sea gulls and steep hills of Fall River spread out below the windows. "It seems to us like a bad movie ... yet we're all living it."

:wtf: