Public-Land Grazing Fees at Lowest Legal Level
From: The Daily Sentinel “The Western Watersheds Project, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians on Thursday criticized the fee reduction in a joint news release. They say many BLM grazing allotments are in poor ...
Interior Looking to Rely on Staffers With Less Training for Park Law Enforcement: Report
From: The Hill “A report by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) to be released Monday, finds that the NPS is seeking to implement a new proposal that would shift the reliance from full-time law enforcement officers to seasonal staffers, who require less robust ...
Federal Employees Warned Not to Engage in Trump ‘Resistance‘ Activities at Work
From: The Herndon Gazette “Advocating for a candidate to be impeached, and thus potentially disqualified from holding federal office, is clearly directed at the failure of that candidate’s campaign for federal office,” the rule states. “Similarly, advocating against a candidate’s ...
Agencies Reduce Grazing Fees for Federal Land
From: The Hill “Conservation groups criticized the change, saying the fees were already far too low to pay for managing the lands. “BLM’s own records reveal that much of the sagebrush West is in severely degraded condition due to excessive commercial livestock grazing,” Kirsten ...
EPA Sued Over Refusal to Release PolyMet Comments
From: The TimberJay “The federal Environmental Protection Agency is facing a lawsuit over allegations that it prevented its own environmental specialists from providing written comments to Minnesota regulators documenting concerns over a proposed state-issued water discharge permit to ...
No GoFundMe Campaigns For Shutdown Employees, Says Federal Ethics Office
From: Boisie State Public Radio “During the five-week partial shutdown, thousands of federal employees took to GoFundMe or other online platforms to fundraise for groceries, day care costs or mortgage payments. According to the memo, that’s a no-no. “GoFundMe opens up to anyone,” ...
EPA Clouding Access To Staffers’ Views On Mine, Enviros Say
From: Law 360 “U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staffers involved in the Clean Water Act permit process for a $1 billion planned copper and nickel mine in Minnesota told a state agency they had concerns” Read more . . . Read the PEER story ...
Lawsuit Filed to Obtain EPA Documents on State PolyMet Permits
From: Duluth News Tribune “An environmental group claims the Environmental Protection Agency is wrongfully withholding documents that contain staff comments on the state-issued pollution permits issued to PolyMet’s copper-nickel mine proposed near Hoyt Lakes. In a lawsuit filed ...
EPA Sued for PolyMet Documents
From: E&E News “A government watchdog and an environmental group have sued EPA to force the agency to turn over documents related to PolyMet Mining Corp.’s proposed copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota. Attorneys from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility ( ...
A Scientist Who Resisted Trump Administration Censorship of Climate Report Just Lost Her Job
From: Mother Jones “Caffrey said she asked her supervisor at the park service, “Is this because of the climate change stuff?” She said he told her, “I don’t want to answer that.” Park service officials did not respond to questions from Reveal about why Caffrey wasn’t rehired ...
Scientist Who Resisted Censorship of Climate Report Lost Her Job
From: Reveal “All federal scientists are vulnerable, but scientists like Caffrey who work under federal contracts face particular risk because they can be fired easily and their funding can be pulled, said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility ...
CSB Must Disclose Chemical Emission Information After Incidents, District Court Rules
From: Safety+Health “Watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and other environmental organizations filed a lawsuit against CSB in December 2017, about three months after an incident at an Arkema Inc. facility in Crosby, TX. Extensive flooding from Hurricane ...
EPA Criminal Enforcement Crumbling Under Trump
From: Inhabitat “Even more concerning is the fact that only 62 of the referrals in 2018 ended with convictions. That is less than any year after 1992 and illustrates a dire need for greater efficiency within the EPA. PEER argues that the Trump administration is one of the biggest reasons ...
The Key Questions the Senate Should Ask Trump’s Nominee to Head the Department of Interior
From: Pacific Standard “Will Bernhardt continue these practices? Will he continue the Trump administration’s effort to bend public lands management to the will of the fossil fuel powers? Or will he commit to keeping public lands in public hands, and recognize the fact that the ...
Court Orders Chemical Safety Board to Get Cracking on Reporting Rules
From: Reuters “A federal judge in Washington, DC has ordered a federal agency to issue rules in the next 12 months for reporting accidental chemical releases, handing environmental groups a victory. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Monday granted summary judgement to a coalition of ...
Watchdog Group: EPA Sharing Pro-Trump Resignation Letter Violated Laws Against Campaigning on Public Dime
From: EcoWatch “PEER claims the press office’s actions violated the Hatch Act, or An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, which mandates that civil servants not campaign on official time or with official resources. The organization sent a letter Monday to the Hatch Act ...
EPA Press Office Under Fire for Releasing Politically Charged Resignation Letter
From: Government Executive “The letter, according to news reports and confirmed by EPA to Government Executive, was provided to reporters by the press office. That prompted the nonprofit advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility on Monday to file a complaint with ...
Feds Given 12 Months to Release Chemical Safety Rule
From: Bloomberg News “The court rejected the CSB’s argument that the delay was reasonable given its “limited resources and competing priorities.” If their inaction is caused by a lack of resources, the board should not ignore the congressional directive, the court said. Instead it ...
Group Urges Special Counsel to Probe EPA for Breaking the Law
From: The Washington Examiner “GROUP URGES SPECIAL COUNSEL TO PROBE EPA FOR BREAKING THE LAW: An environmental group formally petitioned the federal special counsel’s office on Monday to probe whether the Environmental Protection Agency broke the law by promoting Trump’s 2020 re- ...
Grand Canyon to be Reimbursed for Funds Spent in Shutdown
From: Signals AZ “Ruch said he believes the decision to tap fee dollars came from Washington and not from local park superintendents, despite “all this happy talk we’ve been hearing in this administration about empowering the field.” Garder said using fee dollars in the first place ...
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