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: How Mitch McConnell Gutted the Pandemic Response

by Tim Whitehouse | March 25, 2020
While he has been the Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell has led efforts to cut $1.6 trillion in critical funding for CDC and NIH research. And now, as our public health services are begging for resources to save lives from the pandemic, Americans are living the policy result of Sen ...

PEER Letter to Suspend Action During Coronavirus Crisis

by Peter Jenkins | March 23, 2020
A coalition of more than 90 conservation groups issued a letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt urging the department to "suspend major policy changes, changes to regulations, oil and gas lease sales and public comment periods ...

BLOG: Self-Dealing, COVID-19 and the Public Trust

U.S. Senators sold millions of dollars in stock after receiving non-public information during Congressional briefings in January on the coronavirus threat ...

ALERT: Pandemic Perspective

by Tim Whitehouse | March 19, 2020
As the novel coronavirus spreads across the country, many people have asked how we plan to continue to our work. The global impact of the coronavirus is bringing dramatic changes to how we live, many of which we have already begun to feel around the nation ...

BLOG: Proposed Changes Will Fillet NEPA – PEER Public Comments

by Kevin Bell | March 11, 2020
PEER submitted comments opposing the Commission on Environmental Quality's proposal to undermine the nation’s foundational environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA ...

BLOG: Pesticides: Persistent Threat to Birds, Bees and Humans

by Peter Jenkins | February 25, 2020
With roughly 40 percent of insect life threatened with extinction over the coming decades, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to gamble by keeping powerful insecticides that Europe has banned, registered in the United States ...
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