Commentary

Director of Science Policy; Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Director

Kyla first became involved with PEER in the mid-1990s when she became a whistleblower herself. She previously worked at the United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 1 for 10 years as a wetland permit reviewer and as the Region’s Wetlands Enforcement Coordinator. Kyla’s familiarity with science, the law, and the inner workings of state and federal governmental agencies enable her to assist public environmental employees throughout New England. She has a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Connecticut and a law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon.

COMMENTARY | PFAS Contamination Study Yields Frightening Results

by Kyla Bennett | August 5, 2022
Environmental contamination of PFAS has exceeded a new planetary boundary or environmental limits within which humans can survive ...

COMMENTARY | Senate Agreement Kick-Starts Climate Action

by Tim Whitehouse | August 1, 2022
The Senate is one step closer to historic climate legislation that would benefit communities and invest hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy programs ...

COMMENTARY | Environmental Whistleblowers and the Need for Change at EPA

by Tim Whitehouse | July 20, 2022
Environmental whistleblowers may not grab the nation's attention but they are vital to creating meaningful government reforms ...

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 ...