Navy’s Hunters Point Retesting Plan Draws on Questionable Cost-Cutting Study
From: San Francisco Chronicle “The U.S. Navy’s latest promise to clean up radioactive soil and buildings at its former San Francisco shipyard relies on an earlier Navy effort to remove less radioactivity in order to cut costs, The Chronicle has learned. The perplexing move has ...
The EPA Can’t Stop Polluters When the Trump Administration Cuts Enforcement Staff
From: Union of Concerned Scientists “n addition to reductions in staff focused on pollution prevention, it also means reductions in staff for those who work on environmental cleanup, such as at Superfund sites. There is also a critically low number of criminal investigators working for ...
Zinke Yields to States on Fish and Wildlife
From: Greenwire “Individual states will wield more clout over fish and wildlife on about 780,000 square miles of Interior Department land nationwide under a new policy outlined by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. In a move that’s welcomed by Western conservatives but worries ...
Court Challenges May Loom for ‘Acting’ Decisions
From: Greenwire “The Government Accountability Office appears to have punted on determining the legality of certain actions taken by temporary Interior Department appointees. So federal judges will now get the ball, with some high-stakes decisions potentially on the line. “The ...
Interior Deferring to States, Reviewing Fish, Wildlife Protections
From: Natural Gas Intel “Zinke’s plans for the review were outlined in a two-page memo posted Tuesday by the nonprofit group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Although the memo doesn’t specifically mention the greater sage grouse or the lesser prairie ...
Zinke Memo: Interior Will Defer To States For Wildlife Management
From: Wyoming Public Media “In the memo Zinke asked Interior bureaus to examine and contrast state versus federal policies over the next month and a half, and then provide recommendations for policy changes that defer to states within 90 days. Zinke’s office did not return a request ...
Legal Battle Staves Off Trump’s Assault on Clean-Water Protections
From: Truth Out “Since taking office, Donald Trump has waged a relentless attack on the nation’s waterways, but his efforts to strip away protections for rivers and wetlands have run into a tide of legal resistance. One of Trump’s first environmental policy directives was to choke ...
Grand Teton Supe Tapped by Trump to Lead NPS
From: Grand Canyon Guide “Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said the organization has some concerns about Vela’s lack of transparency in park operations, among other things. In a news release issued Sept. 4, PEER listed a few of the ...
Overnight Energy: EPA Moves to Roll Back Methane Rule | FEMA Preps for ‘Dangerous’ Hurricane Florence | Trump Calls Puerto Rico Hurricane Response a ‘Success’ | Zinke Wants to Defer to States on Wildlife Rules
From: The Hill “In a memo Monday to officials in the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and other agencies involved in wildlife management, Zinke asked staff to find instances where policies for wildlife on federal land are more restrictive than rules for the states they’re in, and to ...
Zinke Seeks More State Wildlife Management on Federal Lands
From: Anchorage Daily News “”The Department recognizes States as the first-line authorities for fish and wildlife management and hereby expresses its commitment to defer to the States in this regard except as otherwise required by Federal law,” Zinke wrote in the memo to ...
Zinke Looks to Ease Some Wildlife Rules
From: The Hill “In a memo Monday to officials in the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and other agencies involved in wildlife management, Zinke asked staff to find instances where policies for wildlife on federal land are more restrictive than rules for the states they’re in, and to ...
The Chemist Who Fought the EPA and Won – Twice
From: Women Whistleblowers “When nothing changed, in 2006 Jenkins sent a 60-page memo to the EPA Inspector General detailing the chemical composition of the dust. In addition to rehashing previous allegations, she offered up proof of criminal fraud. Again she shared this information with ...
EPA Watchdog to Probe Superfund Task Force
From: The Hill “The group released a 34-page list of recommendations for Pruitt in July 2017, including to create a special list of Superfund sites to get the highest attention from EPA leadership. But the task force was very secretive, releasing little about its internal operations. In ...
Environmental Watchdog Calls Great Lakes Report Card ‘Horrific’
From: WKAR – Michigan State University “Over 4,000 miles of Great Lakes shoreline assessed by the Environmental Protection Agency have been deemed impaired. A new EPA report found miles of Great Lakes shoreline and open water are contaminated by PCBs, dioxin, mercury, and ...
Idle Oil, Gas Wells Threaten Indian Tribes While Energy Companies, Regulators Do Little
From: Investigate West “On Utah’s Northern Ute reservation, as of 2014 there were at least 162[6] wells that hadn’t produced oil and gas for at least 10 years,[7] according to an InvestigateWest analysis of data obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility under the ...
PEER Questions David Vela’s Qualifications To Lead National Park Service
From: National Parks Traveler “PEER’s release opposing Grand Teton Superintendent Vela’s nomination to be the next Park Service director comes as the organization is concluding a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit it filed against Grand Teton for withholding information on ...
1 Voice Disputes Praise for Vela
From: Jackson Hole News & Guide “But there was a pause in the applause this week, when a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog organization that represents federal whistleblowers sent word of its staunch disapproval.“Every time we’ve encountered him, he seems to be gaming the system to ...
Trump Names 28-Year Career Employee to Run Park Service
From: Government Executive “PEER criticized Vela’s “penchant for secrecy, instances of gaming the system to the detriment of park resources, and an apparent allergy to long-term planning required by law. PEER’s direct experience with Mr. Vela gives us great pause about endorsing ...
Dunes Action Updates Crowd on Pavilion Project
From: Chesterton Tribune “Of particular moment: the May 15 letter from the National Park Service (NPS) to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) regarding unapproved changes in Pavilion Partners LLC’s plans for the Pavilion at Indiana Dunes State Park beach. PEER has ...
LETTER: Take Action to Protect Waters From Pollution
From: News Herald “The state has cut back on monitoring and reduced enforcement to a trickle. According to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, before 2010 the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had about 1500 enforcement cases per year. By 2013 that number had ...
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