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EPA to fire or reassign more than 450 staffers working on environmental justice, DEI

by The Washington Post | April 22, 2025
Some environmental advocates worry that dismantling the office will hurt disadvantaged communities, which continue to bear the brunt of pollution. “Every person in this country, regardless of socioeconomic status, race, or Zip code, deserves clean water, air and food,” Kyla Bennett, ...

Interior secretary gives DOGE aide sweeping powers to remake department

by The Washington Post | April 21, 2025
In response, Hassen sought to remove Irish from his job, accusing him of “subverting, obstructing and delaying” the granting of access. Irish remains on leave as of Monday, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is representing Irish in challenging his ...

Fired probationary workers at Commerce say their insurance is being cut early

by The Hill | April 18, 2025
Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which advocates on behalf of federal workers, said he heard from “dozens” of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) staffers who received such notices. “At a time when the ...

NOAA workers report ‘intentional chaos’ during personnel cuts

by NBC News | April 17, 2025
“To me, it just points to a deliberate lack of planning,” Whitehouse said. “That’s the strategy. They don’t care. It’s creating all these problems for employees.” PEER outlined its concerns in a Tuesday letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, claiming that “sloppy ...

Interior official who resisted DOGE fights potential firing

by E&E News | April 15, 2025
Tim Whitehouse, PEER’s executive director, said Interior is attempting to punish Irish “for doing his job” and that government attorneys should “ask questions to ensure the legitimacy of actions before proceeding.” Whitehouse added in a statement: “The consequences of a ...

Complaint seeks to put idled EPA staff back to work

by E&E News | April 14, 2025
A worker advocacy group is seeking outside federal help to force the reinstatement of as many as 168 idled EPA employees to active job duties. In a complaint filed Friday, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility alleged EPA’s decision to keep those staffers on administrative ...

Maryland lawmakers vote to end renewable subsidy for incineration

by Waste Dive | April 9, 2025
Nevertheless, the policy directed about $100 million in subsidies to incinerators in Maryland and Virginia between 2012 and 2022, according to a report from environmental group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The group projected that a further $200 million in subsidies ...

Commerce takes back job reclassifications for NOAA workers

by E&E News | April 7, 2025
Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is providing advice and legal counsel to an undisclosed number of NOAA employees, said he believes Friday’s email rescinding the Schedule F notifications “reflects a significant power ...

Trump Is Destroying Historic Environmental Regulation—And Marin Audubon’s Name Got (Arbitrarily) Caught Up In It

by Bay Nature | April 3, 2025
But out of nowhere, sandwiched in the ruling, came another set of opinions written by one of the three judges, Arthur Randolph. He declared that CEQ had never been given rulemaking authority. “What is quite remarkable is that this issue has remained largely undetected and undecided for ...

‘A battle of the scientific experts’: PFAS research at centre of Texas farms lawsuit contested

by Chemistry World | April 2, 2025
Based on those results, Ames and Kyla Bennett, an ecologist with the nonprofit group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) who served as a consultant for the investigation, suggested that the fertiliser was contaminated with PFAS that leached onto the neighbouring farms ...

National Park Service is evaluating where electric scooters and hoverboards should be allowed

by KUNC | April 2, 2025
While giving individual park leaders some discretion makes sense to Frank Buono, he thinks more guardrails are needed to protect sensitive areas. “I would like to see a final rule really strengthened to protect the special places in the parks that could be harmed from inappropriate uses ...

Seattle federal worker sues over free speech rights amid DOGE crackdown

by Real Change News | March 27, 2025
Carolyn McConnell, a Seattle-based attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), filed a lawsuit on March 12 against the federal government, alleging that it unfairly punished her for First Amendment-protected activity she conducted during her free time. The suit was filed ...

DOGE cuts allow Musk to cash in with SpaceX and Starlink contracts, ex-workers warn

by The Guardian | March 25, 2025
A new emergency Freedom of Information Act request for communications among Noaa offices and Doge in part seeks to shine some light on those questions. The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) request noted that privatization of the agency has long been a goal of the ...

Texas farmers say sewage-based fertilizer tainted with “forever chemicals” poisoned their land and killed their livestock

by My Paris Texas | March 20, 2025
“Some people are saying, [PFAS contamination] are isolated incidents. No, they’re not. I guarantee that this is a problem in every single state that uses biosolids,” said Kyla Bennett, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employee who is now a science policy director for the ...

EPA plans to cut scientific research program, could fire more than 1,000 employees

by Associated Press | March 18, 2025
Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said the research office’s work is supposed to be uniquely protected from politics. It provides essential science, such as risk assessments for chemicals that pose health threats. The office, ...

NOAA employees reinstated but remain on leave

by E&E News | March 17, 2025
It is unclear how many federal employees received the letter, which was first reported to POLITICO’s E&E News by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is advising more than 120 terminated staffers. A copy of the letter was shared with E&E News by PEER and a ...

Fired Federal Environmental Staff Back on Payroll, but Not Back to Work

by Newsweek | March 17, 2025
Tim Whitehouse, executive director at another nonprofit group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said the organization has been in touch with hundreds of terminated employees who have been informed that they are being placed on administrative leave. “They are getting ...

Judge rules federal job cuts ‘unlawful’

by High Country News | March 14, 2025
Alsup used nearly the same language Thursday morning. Ahead of the hearing, the plaintiffs had sought an injunction against an expanded list of defendants that included all 23 federal agencies that dismissed probationary staff. Alsup applied his ruling to the departments of Veteran Affairs ...

NLRB Atty Says Agency Stifled Her Over Park Advocacy

by Law360 | March 12, 2025
McConnell told Law360 on Wednesday that while the events underlying her complaint arose under formerPresident Jos Biden, her censure hands “a dangerous weapon” to President Donald Trump and adviserElon Musk as they mount “shameful attacks on public servants.” “ ...

National Parks Report Record Visitation Amid ‘Catastrophic’ Moment

by GearJunkie | March 10, 2025
The 34 locations were part of a larger list of hundreds of federal properties the Trump administration is looking to give up or sell, The Washington Post reported. That includes nine visitor centers and visitor contact stations. Examples include the Klondike Gold Rush Historical Site ...
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