Top Democrats slam HUD flood management plans
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PEER | July 31, 2025
According to records collected by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, HUD submitted the rule in early July, and then yanked it just days later. In their letter, the senators said that “the status of the interim rule is unclear.” Read the PEER Story… ...
Forest Service Faces Identity Crisis in USDA Overhaul Plan. Again.
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PEER | July 30, 2025
A 2021 survey of BLM workers by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility reported that 87 percent of reassigned employees either retired or quit rather than move. The field offices were staffed largely by new hires who lacked the scientific or experiential backgrounds of the ...
Why Farmers May Be Able to Continue Fertilizing Fields With PFAS-Contaminated Sewage Sludge
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PEER | July 28, 2025
Public health advocates and some Congress members are now mobilizing to kill the rider, which they say is likely illegal because it pre-empts the Clean Water Act. The attempt to kill the risk assessment is “absolutely insane,” said Kyla Bennett, a former EPA attorney who is now science ...
‘It’s about choices’: Debate in Massachusetts over PFAS in artificial turf fields
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Cornershop Creative | July 26, 2025
Bennett’s view of PFAS doesn’t align with Taylor’s testimony. Manufacturers continue putting PFAS in their turf fields, said Bennett, adding that academics and nonprofits have tested dozens of artificial turf samples and all of them contained PFAS. Bennett hasn’t ...
EPA Shutting Down Independent Research
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Cornershop Creative | July 25, 2025
The US Environmental Protection Agency is shutting down its Office of Research and Development, which represents 50 years of independent scientific research. Kyla Bennett is director of science policy for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and she joined host Aynsley O’ ...
EPA on track to lay off 271 environmental justice staffers
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PEER | July 24, 2025
With the initial shock now passed, affected employees are considering their options, PEER staff counsel Laura Dumais said. “I think everybody’s just trying to move forward; it’s so unfortunate what’s happening,” Dumais said. A religious denomination that played a pivotal role in ...