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.

BLOG | Supreme Court FOIA Decision and Official Candor

by Jeff Ruch | March 16, 2021
The recent Supreme Court decision makes government less transparent by shielding scientific conclusions from disclosure unless they are finally adopted by agency decision-makers ...

BLOG | NOAA’s Failure on the North Atlantic Right Whale 

by Tim Whitehouse | March 11, 2021
The North Atlantic right whale is one of the most critically endangered whales on the planet and NOAA's inaction is putting it on the path to extinction ...

BLOG | Can the Bureau of Land Management Shift Gears on Climate Change?

by Chandra Rosenthal | March 9, 2021
After years of mismanagement, does the Bureau of Land Management have the capacity to deliver on its climate change and conservation promises ...

BLOG | EPA’s Bad Chemistry Is Killing Us 

by Jeff Ruch | February 25, 2021
We cannot afford to wait for EPA to finally become a 21st century regulator of harmful chemicals that find our way into food, water, and air ...

BLOG | Renewable Energy and Public Lands

by Guest Contributor | February 23, 2021
Tensions may emerge between the dual goals of protecting natural areas and reducing GHG emissions, particularly when it comes to public lands ...

BLOG | The Risks of Paying for Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Sequestration

by Peter Jenkins | February 17, 2021
As climate programs are revived under the new Administration, the role of greenhouse gas reduction offsets ​in agriculture are under fresh scrutiny ...
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