Trump Allows GMO Crops and Harmful Pesticides in Wildlife Refuges
From: TruthOut “Late last week, the Trump administration rescinded an Obama-era policy banning the use of GMO crops and a controversial class of pesticides thought to harm bees and birds in federal wildlife refuges.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: ...
United States: D.C. District Court Orders EPA To Respond To Climate Change FOIA Request
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 ...
EPA Docs Don’t Show Any Scientific Evidence for Scott Pruitt’s Climate Claims
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 “ ...
D.C. District Court Orders EPA to Respond to Climate Change FOIA Request
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 ...
Florida Dealing With Dead Fish, Toxic Air, as Officials Grasp for Red Tide Solutions
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 ...
EPA: Pruitt Didn’t Rely on Science When Making Comment About Climate Change
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 “ ...
EPA Has No Records to Support Pruitt’s Warming Claims
From: E&E News “Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has fought EPA in court for more than a year to produce scientific evidence for Pruitt’s claims, which he made on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” Earlier this month, EPA appeared to acknowledge that it did ...
Interior Department OKs Use of GMOs on Wildlife Refuges; No Immediate Impact on Montana
From: Missoula Current “On Friday, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Principal Deputy Director Gregory Sheehan sent an internal memo saying he was reversing a 2014 Obama administration memorandum that phased out wildlife refuges’ use of genetically modified crops and associated pesticides ...
Florida Gutted Water Quality Monitoring – as Killer Algae Increased
From: Tampa Bay Times “Over the last decade, as the state fought federal efforts to protect water, shrunk its own environmental and water-management agencies, and cut funding to an algae task force, monitoring for water quality has plummeted. While one crisis after another hit Florida, ...
Trump Administration Reverses Ban of Bee-Toxic Pesticides on National Wildlife Refuges
From: Beyond Pesticides “At the same time that a new analysis by California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), current neonicotinoid uses in the state expose bees to residue levels known to cause harm, the Trump administration has reversed a 2014 U.S. Fish and Wildlife (FWS) ...
On National Bison Range, Questions Surround Planning Process for its Future
From: The Missoulian “Recently, the complex’s fortunes appeared to have turned. As part of a lawsuit settlement in January, the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to complete a detailed planning guide called a Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP). “They help the station plan for the ...
Harris-Backed Amendment Could End GMO Restrictions at Blackwater, Prime Hook Refuges
From: Delmarva Now “Farming on Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is difficult, but it’s necessary to support migratory birds who rely on nutrient-rich crops to supplement their natural diet in the winter months. Over the past seven years, the struggle to farm in wet marshy ground ...
Wilderness Lost
From: Craig Medred “PEER argued Young overstated its proposal, saying the sanctuary “nomination safeguarded Alaska Native marine subsistence and small-boat fisheries but would curb industrial scale fishing while banning oil and gas development. In addition, the treacherous waters of ...
Beaten in WOTUS Messaging War, Greens Gird for Trump Rule
From: E&E News “The Trump administration expected next month to release a replacement for the Obama rule that will likely reduce the numbers of streams and wetlands protected by the Clean Water Act, environmentalists are preparing for a messaging fight. “The problem is it’ ...
EPA Smears Former Employees Who Criticized the Agency
From: True Blue Media “As the Trump administration’s assault on science drove career civil servants to sound the alarm about what was going on during the early months of the Trump presidency, the EPA joined forces with the White House, the Republican National Committee, and right-wing ...
EPA Press Shop Under Pruitt Hit as ‘Fake News’ Factory
From: O’Dwyers “The Environmental Protection Agency’s press office was nothing more than a “fake news factory” under former administrator Scott Pruitt, according to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit alliance of federal, state and ...
Commentary: Florida’s Great Green Algae Disaster – We Asked For It … Us and Rick Scott
From: Orlando Sentinel “When asked about the PEER report tracking his administration’s slack enforcement, Scott’s environmental department responded by touting a “near-record high compliance rate of 96 percent” among Florida businesses. In other words: Florida cracks down less on ...
Federal Court Rules That CREW and PEER Records Lawsuit Against Pruitt and EPA May Proceed
From: CREW “These open government laws exist for a reason – to allow the American people to keep an eye on their government,” stated PEER staff counsel Adam Carlesco. “When our public servants intentionally avoid creating written records as a means of implementing harmful and ...
EPA Press Staff Under Pruitt Sought to Discredit Departing Career Staff
From: Government Executive “nternal emails obtained under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit were released on Thursday by the nonprofit advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which had provided legal representation for one of the departed employees. “Hot ...
Plaintiffs in Hunters Point Suit Demand Mayor Breed, Supervisor Cohen Take Action
From: KTVU “According to activist and former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown, who’s involved in helping the group organize, the residents had unsuccessfully been trying for weeks to arrange a meeting with the two city leaders. The group is demanding that Breed and Cohen ...
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