Commentary

Senior Counsel

Peter has been an environmental, land use, and consumer attorney and advocate since 1983. He has held various roles in Washington, DC including Of Counsel at the Center for Food Safety; Vice President for U.S. Government Policy at Conservation International; Director of International Conservation at Defenders of Wildlife; and Staff Attorney at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Additionally, he worked as a contracted consultant on endangered species recovery efforts with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Turner Endangered Species Fund in New Mexico. Prior to that, he served as an Attorney and Policy Analyst for the U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, and was also in private law practice. His career has centered on bringing the best science to bear in environmental protection efforts; he has specialized in working with scientists so their findings can inform good policy, as well as in federal litigation. Most of his work has been in aid of wildlife conservation in the fields of pesticides, genetically modified organisms, invasive species, wildlife disease prevention, international trade, land use conflicts, and other areas. Peter received his law degree from the University of Puget Sound (now Seattle University) School of Law and also has a master’s degree in Environmental Studies from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, with a focus on conservation biology.

Op-Ed | An alarm is raised, little is done, and employees flee

by Chandra Rosenthal | July 13, 2022
Fed up with the state’s failure to regulate air permits, three state employees came forward about a year ago, but little has changed ...

COMMENTARY | Extreme Judicial Activism in West Virginia v. EPA

by Kevin Bell | June 30, 2022
The ruling, in effect, smothers any attempt to use EPA's existing statutory authorities to control carbon emissions or meaningfully slow climate change ...

REPORT | Building a Better BLM

by Chandra Rosenthal | June 15, 2022
To build a better BLM, PEER recommends prioritizing staff protecting land health and biodiversity and shift priorities away from resource extraction ...

COMMENTARY | New Mexico Dairy Farmers’ Toxic Fight

by Monica Mercola | June 6, 2022
A new Mexico Dairy farmer who lost his entire herd to PFAS contamination is yet another tragic example of the EPA's lack of action on PFAS regulation ...

COMMENTARY | One of “Donald’s Children”

by Jeff Ruch | May 20, 2022
Donald K. Ross was a lifelong activist, public interest attorney and founding board member of PEER ...

COMMENTARY | Preventing Future Zoonotic Pandemics

by Peter Jenkins | May 18, 2022
Four policy steps to reduce zoonotic disease risks and prevent future pandemics that stem from human interaction with wildlife ...
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