News Clips

Senior Counsel

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.

Florida’s environmental commission hasn’t met in 4 years

by Elizabeth Duan | April 9, 2021
“Last week, the nation watched as Florida dumped more than 200 million gallons of wastewater into Tampa Bay to avoid a community-flooding disaster. PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) tracks the number of cases that Fla’s Dept. of Environmental Protection opens ...

Former Employee: Transocean Nearly Caused Oil Rig Catastrophe During Hurricane Zeta

by Elizabeth Duan | April 7, 2021
“When Hurricane Zeta hit the Gulf of Mexico in October 2020, the storm nearly resulted in another catastrophe similar to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Jeff Ruch, the Pacific director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), urged Interior Secretary Deb Haaland ...

3 whales on the path to extinction in US waters

“If current trends hold, the U.S. will earn the uniquely ignominious distinction of presiding over the extinction of three large whale species which largely or solely inhabit our waters. The extinction of any one of these whales would be a black eye for American conservation while ...

Longmont City Council considers letter to investigate false air control data

“City council may ask the Colorado Attorney General to investigate allegations that Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, or APCD, officials ordered staff to falsify data and unlawfully approve permits for industrial operations “at all costs.” The letter, introduced by Martin ...

2020’s Hurricane Zeta Nearly Caused ‘Another Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe’ in Gulf of Mexico

by Elizabeth Duan | April 5, 2021
“It was Thursday, October 22, 2020, when the crew aboard the Transocean Deepwater Asgard, an ultra-deepwater rig in the Gulf of Mexico, started monitoring a weather disturbance in the nearby Caribbean Sea that bore the tell-tale signs of a forming hurricane. But the Asgard, which ...

Scientific integrity, or more hot air?

by Jeff Ruch | April 4, 2021
“On Jan. 27, President Biden issued a more than 10-page executive memo to all agencies on the topic of scientific integrity. In an accompanying fact sheet, the White House claimed this action sends “a clear message that the Biden-Harris Administration will protect scientists ...
Phone: 202-265-7337

962 Wayne Avenue, Suite 610
Silver Spring, MD 20910-4453

Copyright 2001–2025 Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility

PEER is a 501(c)(3) organization
EIN: 93-1102740