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 | EPA’s Latest Toxic PFAS Whitewash Revealed

by | August 25, 2020
EPA delayed and continues to delay release of its interactive PFAS map, which shows local sources of PFAS, forever chemicals linked to cancer ...

Op-Ed | Public Lands Are Key to Fighting Climate Change

by | August 17, 2020
A new administration must stop address climate change, stop the fossil fuel madness and rapidly work to heal our degraded public lands ...

BLOG | What is the EPA Hiding?

by |
The EPA is crippling the Environmental Appeals Board, disempowering communities and enabling polluters ...

BLOG | Trump’s Temporary Insanity

by | August 12, 2020
Trump's latest attempt to avoid the Senate’s confirmation process is Lanny Erdos of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement ...

BLOG | PEER Outlines Plan to Get Park Service Back on Track

by | August 5, 2020
PEER outlines the critical steps that the National Park Service must take in order to return the agency to its original mission and move into the future ...

BLOG | Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s Autocratic Power Grab

by | August 3, 2020
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s Autocratic Power Grab In an obscure announcement on July 22nd about President Trump’s border wall obsession, the Secretary of the Interior, David Bernhardt, stated that he was handing 66 acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to the ...
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