Jeff Ruch
Senior Counsel

Jeff Ruch

Jeff serves as Senior Counsel to PEER, where he specializes in civil service, scientific integrity, and whistleblower protection issues. Jeff was PEER’s Executive Director from 1997 to 2019 and its Pacific Director from 2019 to 2025. Previously, he was the Policy Director and a staff attorney at the Government Accountability Project, representing whistleblowers from both the public and private sectors. Before coming to DC, Jeff worked in California state government for 17 years, mostly in the State Legislature as counsel to various committees where he drafted hundreds of laws on topics ranging from energy conservation to the rights of employed inventors. Jeff served stints as a deputy district attorney and an appellate court clerk. He is a graduate of the California Correctional Officers Academy.

COMMENTARY | Trans-Alaska Pipeline Climate Cluelessness

by Jeff Ruch | March 25, 2024
In its 45 years of operation, TAPS has undergone only two environmental assessments: one in 1972 and the other in 2002 ...

COMMENTARY | Rooting PFAS Out of Our Food Chain

by Jeff Ruch | January 22, 2024
Culminating three years of legal and advocacy work, the EPA issued an order prohibiting Inhance Technologies from producing PFAS during fluorination ...

COMMENTARY | Redeeming Santa Susana: Micro-Steps Up a Mountain

by Jeff Ruch | November 6, 2023
The communities around Santa Susana will continue to suffer while Boeing shirks responsibility and leaves a toxic legacy ...

Op-Ed | San Francisco’s Sewage Agency Also Needs Some Treatment

by Jeff Ruch | August 31, 2023
San Francisco taxpayers and ratepayers are footing the bill in the fight against tougher sewage controls on its oceanside outlets since 2019 ...

COMMENTARY | Is Congress Too Dysfunctional to Fund the National Parks?

by Jeff Ruch | August 10, 2023
In past decades, America’s best idea was one of the few domestic programs enjoying bipartisan support ...
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