News Clips

From: Tampa Bay Times “Numbers like these also have to be taken into context with the possibly increasing size of the manatee population and local abundance variations from year to year,” she explained. “If more manatees hang out in more urban areas, one can assume that more ...

From: KSAT “If manatee deaths continue at this rate for the rest of the year, 10% of the manatee population will perish, the PEER report said. “Florida’s manatees have no defense against this ecological disaster,” PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch said in a statement. ...

From: The Bulletin “As of Aug. 18, the most recent date for the running total, the Red Tide bloom had been verified as the cause of death for 29 manatees, and was suspected of killing another 74. That makes a total of 103 that appear to have fallen prey to the lingering toxic algae. Most ...

From: The Independent “We expect the red tide-related manatee death toll to rise,” Jeff Ruch, executive director for NGO Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, told AP. “We suspect there are a number of carcasses that have not been reported yet.” Figures from the ...

From: The Guardian “Manatees are dying in alarming numbers in Florida this year – the toll significantly increased by the “red tide” toxic algae bloom blighting large areas of the coast and threatening wildlife and tourism. More of the large, slow-moving herbivores, also known as ...

From: Orlando Sentinel “We expect the red tide related manatee death toll to rise,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a D.C.-based nonprofit. “We suspect there are a number of carcasses that have not been reported yet.&# ...

From: CNN “In just the first eight months of the year, the number of manatee deaths in Florida has surpassed the total for all of 2017, according to a report by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Some 540 manatees died through Aug. 12 compared with 538 manatee ...

From: Florida Today “According to Florida Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection opened some 1,600 investigations into potential environmental violations in 2010, the year Scott was elected to office. By 2017, that ...

From: My Stateman “A group called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has sued under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the evidence that Pruitt used to support his claim that human activity is “not a primary” contributor to global warming. Yes, Team Trump. ...

From: Reveal News “The Trump administration argues that the Chemical Safety Board duplicates the work of other federal agencies. Administration budget documents also cite unspecified complaints from industry and other federal agencies about the board’s recommendations for new ...

From: The Nation “In a terse memorandum, seemingly unprompted, the FWS quietly rescinded a hard-won Obama-era legal agreement, which imposed a blanket ban on the pesticides and genetically modified crops on the agricultural lands currently hosted in national wildlife refuges. The Obama- ...

“Scores of scientists working for the federal government say that under the Trump administration, political concerns outweigh scientific rigor and budget cuts hamper their mission, a new survey shows. Scientists also said they censor their own work to avoid getting in trouble, according ...

From: The Blue Paper “The PEER analysis looks at 31 CAFO permits that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued in the seven-county area south of Orlando, with most in Okeechobee County directly to the north of Lake Okeechobee. These facilities hold ...

From: Forbes “Interestingly, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility successfully forced the EPA to show that Pruitt had no data before him when he publicly questioned the extent to which humans are responsible for global warming, or more precisely, the burning of fossil ...

From: TruthOut “Late last week, the Trump administration rescinded an Obama-era policy banning the use of GMO crops and a controversial class of pesticides thought to harm bees and birds in federal wildlife refuges. The news generated some eye-popping headlines and raises the question: ...

From: Mondaq “On June 1, 2018, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a memorandum opinion ordering the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request received from ...

From: Ars Technica “During a live interview last year on Squawk Box, the administrator stated: “I would not agree that [carbon dioxide is] a primary contributor to the global warming that we see,” adding, “there’s a tremendous disagreement about the degree of the impact” of “ ...

From: Lexology “The case offers several key takeaways that could shape future FOIA requests directed to EPA and the agency’s responses thereto. First, the D.C. District Court made it clear that EPA can be called upon to produce documents supporting or relied on to formulate public ...

From: UPI “Dead marine life, including fish and sea turtles, washing ashore represents one of many problems facing Floridians as a red tide worsens along the state’s southwest coast. Scientists say the phenomenon that began a few months ago is not going away anytime soon, leaving ...

From: The Hill “Former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt failed to back his reasoning with science when he made a claim last year that humans are not the central cause of climate change, according to internal documents. Pruitt, who appeared on CNBC’s “ ...