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Fat squirrels, rowdy bears and burned-out rangers: How Trump policies are scrambling America’s national parks

by CNN | August 3, 2026
Tim Whitehouse, the executive director at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), an organization that works with and supports park rangers, scientists, land managers and other civil servants, said he’s in touch with many NPS employees. He pointed out that rangers are ...

Effort to Unleash Cattle on Public Land Spells Trouble for Ecosystem Health

by Sierra | August 2, 2026
Despite the administration’s emphasis on improving the health of public lands, conservation groups say many grazing allotments are already degraded. Data from the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility shows that nearly one million acres fail to meet the BLM’s rangeland ...

DOJ Drops Reflecting Pool Case, But Olympian’s Lawyers Say That Won’t ‘Erase the Abuse’ of Power

by Common Dreams | August 1, 2026
t’s not just Pirro’s office and the DOJ under fire for this debacle. While welcoming the motion to dismiss, Tim Whitehouse, executive director of the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), took aim at DOI in a Saturday statement. “This project has become ...

A majority of Florida waterways are polluted. But environmental enforcement is lacking

by Central Florida Public Media | July 31, 2026
A majority of Florida waterways are failing water quality standards, even as the state’s pollution enforcement remains near historic lows, according to a new report. The report was published by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, and Waterkeepers Florida, a ...

Most Florida Waterways Fail Water Quality Standards as Enforcement Lags

by Inside Climate News | July 29, 2026
These below-average numbers of enforcement actions align with a 19 percent decline in Florida’s environmental agency staff—the largest decrease in number of any state—from 2010 to 2025, according to a report from the Environmental Integrity Project. During the same period, the state ...

Why Are So Many Grey Whales Washing Up on the Pacific Coast?

by CTV | July 28, 2026
Scientists are sounding the alarm after a record-breaking spike in grey whales washing up along the Pacific Coast. The U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that these numbers are the highest seen in decades, raising urgent questions about the health of our ...

DOJ’s Environmental Enforcement Has Collapsed in the Second Trump Administration, Former Attorneys Say

by Inside Climate News | July 28, 2026
Like the Environmental Integrity Project, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) analyzed court records and found a “collapse” of environmental enforcement under Trump II, with a sharp drop in civil cases settled by the DOJ that were referred by the EPA. “The ...

Proposed turf field at Champlain Valley Union High School sparks debate

by WCAX | July 24, 2026
Kyla Bennett is the science policy director at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. While some companies tout safer alternatives, she says there’s no such thing. “My personal opinion is that I do not think it’s possible today to buy a PFAS-free field. Again ...

Gray whales are dying in the Pacific

by The Week | July 21, 2026
There’s a whale of a problem off the U.S. West Coast. Gray whales are undergoing a “catastrophic mortality event,” said the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), with close to 150 carcasses found on beaches along the Pacific Ocean just this year. The ...

Why Is the Federal Government Dumping Toxic Chemicals Onto Public Lands?

by Sierra | July 20, 2026
Many of these herbicides and pesticides contain complex mixtures of supposedly “inert” compounds whose full ingredient lists remain shielded as trade secrets. Chemical manufacturers, of course, insist on the safety of these chemicals, however researchers from the nonprofit ...

Trump officials kill proposed rules for Pfas-contaminated sewage fertilizer

by The Guardian | July 20, 2026
However, in comments published to the federal register, the EPA also advised the US public to “research” sludge companies to protect itself from the highly toxic chemicals contaminating home fertilizer widely sold for use in home gardens. The decision is “a bit bonkers”, said ...

Tillis shouts at Vought, tired of picking up ‘DOGE s‑‑‑ because people did it wrong’

by The Hill | July 16, 2026
But in December, the executive director of the environmental nonprofit group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said the Trump administration cost taxpayers an estimated $10 billion last year via its deferred resignation program, through which it offered federal workers full ...

Gray whale strandings near record high in state

by Whidbey News-Times | July 14, 2026
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility recently described the die-off as a “Catastrophic Mortality Event.” However, John Calambokidis, a senior research biologist with Cascadia Research, said no such formal designation has been made. PEER is also urging federal action. It is ...

Gray whale washes up on Kenai Peninsula beach amid worsening West Coast die-off

by Anchorage Daily News | July 14, 2026
The strandings this year represent what Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a whistleblower protection and environmental advocacy group, is calling a new catastrophic die-off. This year’s count most likely underestimates the actual number of gray whales dying off the ...

Is industry getting more or less safe?

by Chemistry World | July 14, 2026
US non-profit organisation Peer (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) has highlighted the number of serious chemical incidents across the US in recent years, aiming to stress the risks attached to the US government’s proposals to reduce incident prevention requirements. ...

Trump officials accused of stacking top chemical safety board with industry ‘mouthpieces’

by The Guardian | July 13, 2026
The industry-aligned SACC will probably ensure that scientific research that supports industry positions are used, and the board “will just rubber-stamp everything”, said Kyla Bennett, a former EPA scientist now with the Public Employees for Responsibility non-profit. “It will give ...

Watchdog Says Rule Change for Federal Grants a ‘Recipe for Corruption’ on a Never-Before-Seen Scale

by Common Dreams | July 13, 2026
Trump megadonor and former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk, the comment notes, was allowed to oversee the cancellation of the contracts for numerous vendors while never touching any of the more than $19 billion his businesses held in federal contracts. “This is ...

Trump admin reshaping federal employee discipline, firing rules

by Federal News Network | July 10, 2026
“What we are seeing is the methodical implementation of a system where nonpolitical career employees can be fired for doing their job correctly but inconveniently, and where they will have nowhere to go for a fair, independent second look,” Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public ...

He Wanted to Track Microplastics in the Sea. The E.P.A. Fired Him.

by The New York Times | July 10, 2026
In an interview, Mr. Tyler said he did no such thing. “We’re supposed to be using science and making science-based decisions,” Mr. Tyler said. He said he wrote the memo and circulated it to agency attorneys whose job it is to be aware of documents that potentially shouldn’t be made ...

‘Reckless’ space-based data centers lack environmental review, drawing criticism

by Space.com | July 9, 2026
Over the last few months, a number of different companies have requested licenses from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch data centers into space. SpaceX’s proposal alone requests licenses for up to one million satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). But the ...