News Clips

“It strips federal EPA scientists of their ability to help the American public tackle the worst effects of climate change, and the EPA of its power to protect the environment and our communities from a worsening climate crisis,” said Marie Owens Powell, president of AFGE Council 238, ...

At issue were plans by the Park Service to build an enclosed theater seating 200 people at the base of Last Stand Hill, site of the climax of the 1876 battle in which Custer and five companies of the 7th Cavalry were wiped out. While concerns over the project had prompted then-National ...

“The definition is the fundamental building block for regulation and EPA has an obligation to explain the basis for its PFAS definition,” says Kyla Bennett, science policy director for the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). “EPA’s current ...

The one-paragraph order handed down Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia directs the two agencies to “(1) explain why the agencies were unaware that they were behind schedule as of their November 24, 2021 status report; (2) propose firm compliance dates ...

On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we speak with Kyla Bennett, a lawyer who represents five EPA scientists turned whistleblowers. They allege that managers and career staff in the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention tampered with the assessments ...

Beyond neonics, the bigger problem, said the scientists and conservation activists I spoke with, is the seeming “capture” of the pesticide regulatory system, in both Canada and U.S., by the chemical industry and its well-funded lobby, with a revolving door between regulators and the ...

The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has been one of many organizations repeatedly calling for class-based regulation that would see all PFAS facing restrictions. “The more we learn, the more toxic we understand these chemicals to be,” said Kyla Bennett, ...

The revelation that OIG launched a review of Lemos comes amid an unfolding saga that has seen her resigning from the agency. In an email obtained by the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Lemos told CSB staff that she was providing six weeks of notice, “ ...

“As requested by Congress and the Executive Branch, I contributed significantly to restoring the integrity and efficiency of the CSB in meeting its mission,” Lemos wrote in an email to agency staffers posted online by watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility ...

More recently, in a suit against the EPA in April, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a Washington, D.C.-based NGO, alleged that the agency was “withholding documents explaining why it has adopted an exceedingly limited definition of [PFAS].” EPA subsequently ...

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) has released a new interactive map showing which cattle ranching allotments through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) meet the land health standards and which have not. PEER used data that it obtained through Freedom of Information ...

Last seek Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued an order seeking to reduce the procurement, sale and distribution of single-use plastic products and packaging, with a goal of phasing out single-use plastic products on all lands managed by the Interior Department by 2032. According to ...

The fight with the two board members is not the only controversy swirling around Lemos, who has come under criticism from outside groups for her spending on travel and other expenses. The organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) reported last year that ...

“EPA had the courage to follow the science. This is a step in the right direction,″ said co-facilitator of the National PFAS Contamination Coalition Stel Bailey, as The Associated Press reported. The new guidelines only address four out of about 9,000 PFAS compounds, reported The ...

Lemos changed her duty station — where she’s officially based — to San Diego, rather than Washington, according to a report in The Hill. The agency said this change was more aligned with where she is working remotely as the agency continues to telework. The change was confirmed by ...

But what Reardon calls stability, others call persistence. Data compiled by Alexandrino and his team show half-lives (the amounts of time it takes chemicals to dissipate by half in the environment) ranging from a few days to 2.5 years for top-selling fluorinated pesticides. That is less ...

It’s too bad for conservationists and all Americans, but Tracy Stone-Manning, Biden’s new Bureau of Land Management (BLM) director, is continuing the Trump administration’s policy of destructive public land grazing. The BLM administers 246 million acres of public land, mainly in the ...

The MN PUC took up the issue of CO2 pipelines after CURE submitted petitions about the two current CO2 pipeline projects to the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board in late 2021. The health and safety concerns of PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) and other ...

While the new levels could have significant consequences, they still represent “baby steps” in addressing the larger PFAS problem, said Tim Whitehouse, a former EPA enforcement attorney and executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “The EPA should be ...

And various advocates and experts also voiced concerns over components of EPA’s move. Erik Olson, who directs health and food work for NRDC, questioned the advisory for PFBS, which is significantly higher than the other four chemicals and seemingly out of step with some of the available ...