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Pollution Related To Space Is Getting Worse As Trump And Musk Target Research And Regulations

by IFLScience | May 12, 2025
There have been some studies quantifying the pollution of launches and the potential impact of burning satellites on the higher portions of the atmosphere and the ozone layer. But it’s preliminary work and more research is needed. This is why the timing of funding cuts is the worst ...

National Park Service To Be Hit With 1,500 Additional Layoffs And Deep Budget Cuts, Reports Say

by Forbes | May 8, 2025
Maybe. A week after the February layoffs, and following a swell of public backlash, the park service announced it would hire up to 7,700 seasonal positions this year, more than the three-year average of 6,350 seasonal workers it normally hires. “There are just a lot of unknowns about ...

Their Cows Started Dying Mysteriously. Lawmakers Are Taking Notice.

by Texas Monthly | May 7, 2025
With the help of Ames, the couples have been able to test their soil and tissue from some of the deceased animals. They sent samples to Kyla Bennett at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an environmental-protection nonprofit that serves as a resource for whistleblowers. ...

Trump administration to stop US research on space pollution, in boon to Elon Musk

by The Guardian | May 7, 2025
“Obviously there’s political motivation, and Elon Musk’s business interests are tied up in Noaa’s work,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility non-profit, which has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for emails ...

EPA reorganization hits research arm

by Chemical & Engineering News | May 6, 2025
Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is also glad that the EPA is adding positions to the OCSPP, but “that division is so broken that I fear throwing more people in there, particularly people who may not have expertise in ...

SpaceX alum tapped as Interior CIO

by Nextgov/FCW | May 5, 2025
“This episode epitomizes the cruelty, ignorance, and gross mismanagement ignited by DOGE in the federal service,” Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said in a statement. Typically, federal employees who aren’t in their ...

Former DOGE official cannot legally fire Interior lawyer, group says

by E&E News | May 5, 2025
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says in documents filed with the department last week that Tyler Hassen, a former member of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency who’s now Interior’s acting assistant secretary for policy, management and budget, lacks ...

EPA announces broad reorganization that includes shuffle of scientific research

by Associated Press | May 3, 2025
“The problem is that some areas of the country have much worse air pollution, and it cannot be treated as a one-size-fits-all,” said Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit that supports public employees who raise ...

Trump officials gut 25 centers that monitor flooding and drought in the US

by The Guardian | May 2, 2025
The targeted centers are part of a larger network, and the Trump administration based its decision to make cuts on leases near expiration, not scientific reasoning, said Kyla Bennett, director of science policy with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility non-profit that is ...

Is DOGE risking the government’s cybersecurity? Some have lost their jobs to block them.

by USA Today | April 28, 2025
Ultimately, Irish, an 18-year veteran of the department, and two other career employees were placed on leave. Irish was notified on April 4 that he would be removed from his job. The case is particularly troubling because it’s a “significant, significant cybersecurity risk with ...

EPA to fire or reassign more than 450 staffers working on environmental justice, DEI

by The Washington Post | April 22, 2025
Some environmental advocates worry that dismantling the office will hurt disadvantaged communities, which continue to bear the brunt of pollution. “Every person in this country, regardless of socioeconomic status, race, or Zip code, deserves clean water, air and food,” Kyla Bennett, ...

Interior secretary gives DOGE aide sweeping powers to remake department

by The Washington Post | April 21, 2025
In response, Hassen sought to remove Irish from his job, accusing him of “subverting, obstructing and delaying” the granting of access. Irish remains on leave as of Monday, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is representing Irish in challenging his ...

Fired probationary workers at Commerce say their insurance is being cut early

by The Hill | April 18, 2025
Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which advocates on behalf of federal workers, said he heard from “dozens” of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) staffers who received such notices. “At a time when the ...

NOAA workers report ‘intentional chaos’ during personnel cuts

by NBC News | April 17, 2025
“To me, it just points to a deliberate lack of planning,” Whitehouse said. “That’s the strategy. They don’t care. It’s creating all these problems for employees.” PEER outlined its concerns in a Tuesday letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, claiming that “sloppy ...

Interior official who resisted DOGE fights potential firing

by E&E News | April 15, 2025
Tim Whitehouse, PEER’s executive director, said Interior is attempting to punish Irish “for doing his job” and that government attorneys should “ask questions to ensure the legitimacy of actions before proceeding.” Whitehouse added in a statement: “The consequences of a ...

Complaint seeks to put idled EPA staff back to work

by E&E News | April 14, 2025
A worker advocacy group is seeking outside federal help to force the reinstatement of as many as 168 idled EPA employees to active job duties. In a complaint filed Friday, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility alleged EPA’s decision to keep those staffers on administrative ...

Maryland lawmakers vote to end renewable subsidy for incineration

by Waste Dive | April 9, 2025
Nevertheless, the policy directed about $100 million in subsidies to incinerators in Maryland and Virginia between 2012 and 2022, according to a report from environmental group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The group projected that a further $200 million in subsidies ...

Commerce takes back job reclassifications for NOAA workers

by E&E News | April 7, 2025
Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is providing advice and legal counsel to an undisclosed number of NOAA employees, said he believes Friday’s email rescinding the Schedule F notifications “reflects a significant power ...

Trump Is Destroying Historic Environmental Regulation—And Marin Audubon’s Name Got (Arbitrarily) Caught Up In It

by Bay Nature | April 3, 2025
But out of nowhere, sandwiched in the ruling, came another set of opinions written by one of the three judges, Arthur Randolph. He declared that CEQ had never been given rulemaking authority. “What is quite remarkable is that this issue has remained largely undetected and undecided for ...

‘A battle of the scientific experts’: PFAS research at centre of Texas farms lawsuit contested

by Chemistry World | April 2, 2025
Based on those results, Ames and Kyla Bennett, an ecologist with the nonprofit group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) who served as a consultant for the investigation, suggested that the fertiliser was contaminated with PFAS that leached onto the neighbouring farms ...
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