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.

COMMENTARY | PFAS Endangering Our Food Supply

by Laura Dumais | November 4, 2024
PEER is engaged in several efforts to prevent toxic PFAS from contaminating our food chain. Unfortunately, EPA is being more of a hindrance than a help ...

COMMENTARY | Perils of Public Service: Oklahoma City Bombing Omens Gathering Again

by Jeff Ruch | October 29, 2024
As in the mid-90s, anti-government sentiments are running rampant. But today, these paranoid fantasies are fed by ever-growing doses of misinformation pumped into ever-present social media ...

COMMENTARY | Maryland’s Renewable Energy Law: Are Reforms on the Horizon?

by Tim Whitehouse | October 28, 2024
Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson announced he would sponsor a bill to remove trash incineration from the state’s definition of renewable energy ...

COMMENTARY | Transitioning to Renewable Energy the Right Way

by Tim Whitehouse | October 25, 2024
As the country builds out renewable energy projects, our goal is to ensure that renewable energy development avoids intact ecosystems and heritage sites ...

COMMENTARY | Project 2025: Are We Headed Toward An Extreme Public Lands Agenda?

by Chandra Rosenthal | October 15, 2024
Project 2025, the authoritarian playbook for a future Republican administration, would give the extraction industries nearly unrestricted access to public lands ...
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