Internal Watchdog Just Dinged the Park Service Director for “Inappropriate” Workplace Conduct
From: Mother Jones “The Interior Department’s internal watchdog released a report Thursday describing an inappropriate gesture made by the National Park Service director in department headquarters. While Paul Daniel Smith is unlikely to be punished over the incident, the case ...
Pruitt Acts to Yield Some EPA Power Over Mining
From: WBAL “In a memo released Wednesday by the EPA, Pruitt directs the agency to study renouncing part of its authority under the half-century-old Clean Water Act to veto permits that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or states grant to allow dumping waste into waterways. Pruitt&# ...
Meet the Government Chemist Who Spent 36 Months on Paid Leave Before He Was Fired
From: Government Executive “In terms of his profession, Daniel Horowitz has been a political prisoner these past three years but rather than being released he was executed,” said Ruch, arguing that Sutherland wasted several hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer funds by her fear of ...
Pruitt Acts to Yield Some EPA Power Over Mining, Development
From: Sun Herald “Kyla Bennett, a former EPA official now with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility nonprofit, said the proposal would weaken one of the few tools the agency has when it comes to limiting environmental harm from mining and other development around ...
EPA Requests More Time to Find Backing for Pruitt’s Claims
From: E&E News “EPA wants more time to comply with a court order requiring it to hand over scientific records backing Administrator Scott Pruitt’s claims about climate change. The agency yesterday filed a motion seeking to extend the court’s deadline by more than a ...
Labor Groups Seek Quick Ruling Requiring CSB Reporting Regulation
From: Inside OSHA Online “The promulgation of a reporting regulation is a discrete action required by law. In addition to the plain language of the statute confirming this non-discretionary duty, there have been four independent reviews from three different oversight bodies declaring ...
EPA Ordered to Back Up Administrator’s Climate Statement
From: EHS Daily Advisor “In her opinion, Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell noted that more than a year after PEER submitted its request the EPA had not even conducted a search for the requested materials. Howell further agreed with PEER that the EPA was in violation with the FOIA. ...
Report: EPA’s Criminal Investigation Agents Dwindle as Emissions Fight Continues
From: News Wheel “A report by environmental advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has raised concerns that the Environmental Protection Agency, which is currently embroiled in a bitter conflict with California and a collection of other states over vehicle ...
UNITED STATES: PS complaints tribunal suspended
From: PSNews “Senior Counsel for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), Paula Dinerstein said that through its inattention, the White House had caused a merit system train-wreck in which whistleblower protections and other safeguards were functionally nullified. ...
House Democrats Call Upon Zinke To Explain Forced Transfer of Dan Wenk
From: Mountain Journal “In a letter sent to Zinke Friday, June 22, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman of California, who serves as the Democrat’s vice-ranking member of the committee, wrote, “we are concerned that this particular reassignment, in the context of a pattern of questionable ...
EPA’s Criminal Enforcement Numbers Are Dropping Under Pruitt
From: Government Executive “At a time when the Environmental Protection Agency has tripled the number of bodyguards for the administrator, the agency’s cases brought against polluters is in “free fall,” according to a study released on Thursday by the advocacy group Public ...
For Pollinator Week, Help Ban Pesticide Misters in Your State
From: Beyond Pesticides “In 2015, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, detailing false and deceptive claims by manufacturers of pesticide misters. Specifically, PEER noted that manufacturers claim that these ...
EPA Loses 10 percent of Enforcement Staff Under Trump
From: Green Car Reports “If the EPA wants to reduce federal involvement in environmental protection, it may not need to roll back emissions requirements or cancel California’s environmental waiver. It could just quit enforcing the law. That is already happening to a degree, ...
The Energy 202: EPA Loses a Tenth of Its Criminal Investigators Since Trump’s Election
From: The Washington Post “According to data released Thursday by the environmental advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the number of special agents at the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) fell from 157 in September 2016, shortly before ...
No Whistleblower Relief in Broken Civil Service Court
From: YubaNet “Through its inattention, the Trump White House has caused a merit system train-wreck in which whistleblower protections and other safeguards are functionally nullified,” stated PEER Senior Counsel Paula Dinerstein, noting even if a whistleblower wins an initial ...
County to Host Public Forum Answering Questions on Radioactive Soil at Keller Canyon Landfill
From: East Bay Times “Between 2011 and 2017, Keller Canyon accepted 223,000 tons of material from Hunter’s Point that was certified as nonhazardous under 13 separate waste applications, according to Marilyn Underwood, the county’s director of environmental health. On two ...
A Researcher Got Paid $300,000 to Resign After He Said Shooting Wolves Is Bad
From: Motherboard “He found that the rate of wolves preying on livestock actually goes up the more wolves in an area are killed, because it destabilizes the pack’s dynamics. This effect continues until 25 percent of the wolf population has been killed, at which point cattle ...
The Energy 202: Trump Appointee at EPA to Scrutinize Which Pollution Cases May Go to Court
From: The Washington Post “Former enforcement officials worry the new procedures will have a chilling effect among career employees who are already worried about running afoul of an administration that is trying to roll back many environmental rules at the behest of companies the ...
Environmental Group Protests Zinke’s Staff Cuts at Wildlife Center
From: UPI.com “One of Montana’s major tourist attractions is operating with so few staff, its visitor center is forced to close two days a week throughout the summer,” a news release announcing the letter said. “These Tuesday and Wednesday closures that also deny ...
Judging Climate Claims: Prove It, Pruitt
From: Legal Reader “PEER’s broad FOIA filing requested “EPA documents that support the conclusion that human activity is not the largest factor driving global climate change.” The EPA, an agency once tasked with protecting the environment, fought back, refusing to comply with ...
CONNECT:
