EPA

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 | Letter to the EPA: Take Action on “Devil’s Bargain” Pesticides

by Peter Jenkins | March 27, 2023
The environment needs protection from neonic-coated seeds, which are by far the broadest pesticide/insecticide application across the country ...

Organizations Push to Get PFAS out of Plastic Containers

by PEER | March 23, 2023
EPA must ban fluorination process that creates PFAS in plastics ...

COMMENTARY | The EPA is Hiding Behind Industry Secrets

by Tim Whitehouse | March 15, 2023
This Sunshine Week, we discuss the use of “Confidential Business Information” to hide health and safety information from the public ...

STATEMENT | EPA’s Action on PFAS in Drinking Water

by Kyla Bennett | March 14, 2023
EPA’s chemical-by-chemical approach leaves the public unprotected from the vast majority of toxic but unregulated PFAS ...

PEERMail | Reversing a Shocking Pesticides Decision

by PEER | March 7, 2023
Because the overuse of pesticides is a significant cause of pollinator collapse, we are in this battle for the long term ...