News Clips

Last week, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission ordered an environmental review of Great River Energy’s plan to convert the Cambridge 2 natural gas peaking plant into a “dual fuel” facility—one that burns either natural gas or fuel oil. GRE called this proposal a “minor ...

The analysis checked water samples from PFAS hot spots around the country with two types of tests: an EPA-developed method that detects 30 types of the approximately 9,000 PFAS compounds, and another that checks for a marker of all PFAS. The Guardian found that seven of the nine samples ...

July 6 (UPI) — A new analysis of drinking water in the United States found Environmental Protection Agency tests are missing large levels of “forever chemicals” exposing millions to health risks, according to The Guardian. The Guardian analysis found the EPA’s ...

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Policy Director Kyla Bennett told The Guardian that this lack of information should inspire people to act. “There are so many PFAS that we don’t know anything about, and if we don’t know anything about them, how do we know ...

In seven of the nine cities, higher levels of PFAS were found in water samples when using a “total organic fluorine” (TOF) test that identifies markers for all known PFAS compounds than when using the EPA test—at concentrations up to 24 times greater. “The EPA is doing ...

Such chemicals as PFAS have been linked to a host of issues due to their toxicity. In fact, PFAS is linked to cancer, kidney disease, birth defects, and other serious health concerns. Meanwhile, the EPA has been restricted in what it can and cannot test, due to the previous administration ...

Para esta investigación usaron dos tipos de pruebas: el método de la EPA, que detecta 30 tipos de los apróximadamente 9,000 que existen, y otro que comprueba todo componente del tipo PFAS. En siete de las nueve muestras, el segundo análisis encontró más altos niveles de “quí ...

“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 ...