AS HURRICANES STRIKE, EPA STAFFING NEARS A 30 YEAR LOW
From: Bill Moyers & Company “Mr. Pruitt hasn’t laid out any plan for how to reshape the agency or its priorities, making it more difficult to improve its performance with fewer resources, said Jeff Ruch, executive director at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, ...
FEDERAL AUDIT REVEALS $84 MILLION MISUSED FOR DELTA TUNNELS PLANNING
From: Elk Grove News “PEER claimed that of the $60 million in Coordination Act grants spent, “not a dime went to habitat improvements.“ Instead, the group said the money was actually being expended on work that will harm critical habitat for at least five endangered and threatened ...
AGENCY: TURBINES COULD SPIN DURING BIRD MIGRATIONS
From: Cape Cod Times “Feathering is what bird conservationists had asked for 10 years ago, said Kyla Bennett of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, one of the plaintiffs in the court case challenging the project. “Cape Wind had said no, that would make our project ...
WHY DID THE FED INTERIOR DEPARTMENT MISUSE $84 MILLION FOR CALIFORNIA DELTA TUNNELS PLANNING?
From: Red Green And Blue “The release of the final audit follows over a year of federal investigation requested by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), who filed a complaint last February that accused the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau ...
CLASHES WITH WOLVES: WISCONSIN WILDLIFE IS HOUNDED WITH UNBEARABLE CRUELTY
From: Wisconsin Gazette “Last month, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a complaint with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the issue. “Wisconsin encourages hunting practices that seem calculated to cause fatal conflicts with wolves,” PEER staff counsel ...
HUNDREDS OF EPA WORKERS LEAVE THE AGENCY
From: The Scientist “Pruitt has yet to put forth any details on how the EPA’s functions may change given its diminished staff, Jeff Ruch, executive director of the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, tells The Wall Street Journal.” Read more . . . Read ...
HUNDREDS OF EPA WORKERS LEAVE IN RECENT DAYS
From: The Wall Street Journal “Mr. Pruitt hasn’t laid out any plan for how to reshape the agency or its priorities, making it more difficult to improve its performance with fewer resources, said Jeff Ruch, executive director at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which ...
GOVERNMENT ILL-EQUIPPED TO MONITOR INDUSTRIAL PLANTS DAMAGED BY HURRICANE HARVEY
From: Houston Chronicle “Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group representing government environmental workers, published data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showing that criminal pollution cases initiated by the EPA fell two-thirds since 2012, while ...
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AND KEY HOUSE REPUBLICANS PUSH FOR AERIAL GUNNING OF GRIZZLY BEARS AND WOLVES
From: Alternet “Today’s reporting by the Sacramento Bee, and the work of PEER, have sent up a flare, warning the world that there is maneuvering to launch an unacceptable assault on wildlife on National Park Service lands. Hunting grizzly bears over bait, killing wolves in their dens ...
HOW PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE EPA’S SCOTT PRUITT ARE MAKING AMERICA’S ENVIRONMENT DEADLY AGAIN
From: LA Times “Pruitt also has targeted more than 30 rules and regulations for rescission or rollback, and, according to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility advocacy group, has significantly reduced enforcement of the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act — which ...
EPA PUTS TRUMP POLITICAL AIDE IN CHARGE OF GRANT FUNDING DECISIONS
From: The Hill “A former Trump campaign aide has been charged with decisions on grant funding at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), The Washington Post reported.” ...
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S EFFECT ON NATIONAL PARKS
From: Scientific American “Agency officials were told they could not repeat their concerns to Congress, according to Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, who obtained the memo and provided a copy to McClatchy.” Read more . . . Read ...
CRIMINAL POLLUTION CASES ARE DWINDLING AT THE EPA
From: Truthout Buzzflash “To make matters worse, PEER just announced that Sally Bodine — a protégé of both Pruitt and Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe (a notorious climate change denier) — will temporarily join the agency in a senior position even though she has not been ...
PRUITT DELAYED EMERGENCY RULES FOR CHEMICAL PLANTS WEEKS BEFORE TOXIC FIRES ERUPTED IN HOUSTON
From: Truthout “Jeff Ruch, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, points out that President Trump revoked a Federal Flood Risk Management Standard put in place by President Obama just two weeks before Hurricane Harvey battered the Texas coast. “If Trump had ...
WESTERN WATER: PROBE FINDS RECLAMATION MISSPENT FUNDS MEANT FOR WILDLIFE
From: Greenwire “A $32 million Bureau of Reclamation program for irrigators in southern Oregon and Northern California was likely illegal, according to federal investigators who released a letter to President Trump today that sharply criticizes the agency’s response.” Read ...
AGENCY MISSPENT $32 MILLION, BUT INTERIOR HAS HELD NO ONE TO ACCOUNT
From: McClatchy DC ““Sally Jewell could have settled this whole thing while she was in office,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director of PEER. “Instead she just accepted Reclamation’s explanation.”” Read more . . . Read the PEER story ...
NRA OFFICIAL LANDS SEAT ON NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION BOARD
From: National Parks Traveler ““These are not minor matters – these changes would forfeit whole spheres of national park stewardship,” PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch said last week. “It appears that national parks are no longer allowed to give Congress their honest views ...
EPA HAS SLASHED ITS CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DIVISION IN HALF
From: Government Executive “EPA currently has 147 special agents in its Criminal Investigation Division, according to documents obtained through a federal records request by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, less than half the number it employed in 2003 and well below ...
FREEDOM MEANS SHOOTING BEAR CUBS WHILE THEY’RE HIBERNATING
From: Esquire “Agency officials were told they could not repeat their concerns to Congress, according to Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, who obtained the memo and provided a copy to McClatchy. “It appears the national parks are ...
THIRD PUBLIC MEETING SET ON BISON RANGE MANAGEMENT PLAN
From: The Missoulian “Reneau is named in a lawsuit filed last year by the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) that claimed the Fish and Wildlife Service had not completed the necessary analysis needed to turn the National Bison Range over to the CSKT. That ...
