Watchdog reports 54M acres of BLM rangeland fails health standards
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PEER | March 14, 2022
Roughly half of all rangelands leased by the Bureau of Land Management for livestock grazing do not meet baseline health standards, according to a new analysis by a government watchdog group. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, analyzed BLM data covering assessments ...
Whistleblower case ensnares senior BLM official
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PEER | February 11, 2022
Interior said in its motion that Loewen was fired in November 2021 “based on his unacceptable performance and failure to follow instructions.” But lawyers for the government watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which is representing Loewen, counter ...
Criminal cases against polluters drop by a third
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PEER | January 25, 2022
Criminal prosecutions against companies violating environmental laws continued to decline last year, with EPA referrals to the Department of Justice dropping to their lowest levels in more than three decades. EPA referred just 152 criminal cases to DOJ last fiscal year — a third lower ...
Burnout, expertise gaps plague EPA chemicals office
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PEER | December 23, 2021
Key EPA programs are facing a steep staffing shortage that some employees worry will imperil critical chemicals work and certain Biden administration priorities, even as advocates say the agency has no real plan for fixing the problem. Parts of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution ...
NPS accused of shelving employee report on ‘toxic culture’
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PEER | November 15, 2021
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility today accused the National Park Service of “burying” a 2018 report that provided a detailed and critical look at the agency’s long-standing struggles with employee harassment and its “toxic culture.” The report cited “the ...