Home 9 The Newsroom 9 News Clips ( Page 85 )

Acting chiefs to lead BLM, NPS indefinitely

by E&E News | June 5, 2020
“The Interior Department is bypassing legal concerns over whether the acting directors of the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service are qualified to lead the agencies.Instead, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is authorizing William Perry Pendley and David Vela to ...

FWS tries again with cormorant-killing permit plan

by E&E News | June 4, 2020
“The Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed a new permit system that could effectively streamline the killing of voracious double-crested cormorants. A federal judge vacated the orders in 2016 after concluding FWS did not sufficiently consider the effects of the depredation orders ...

Regulations finally coming for scenic air tours over Utah’s national parks but not all pilots like the idea

by Salt Lake Tribune | June 4, 2020
“Scenic overflights at national parks, though pricey, prove popular with tourists. But they have gone largely unregulated despite a 20-year-old law requiring the National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration to craft management plans for each of the parks that host ...

Yellowstone allows more time for Wi-Fi review

by Gillette News Record | June 3, 2020
“A telecommunications business rebuffed the National Park Service last winter after park officials asked for a smaller, pilot version of the company’s plan to add hundreds of antennas transmitting Wi-Fi signals throughout developed areas in Yellowstone National Park. Ruch, of PEER ...

Coronavirus Roundup: Justice and Labor Inspectors General Warn of Fraud; OPM Outlines Plan for Return to its Facilities

by Government Executive | June 2, 2020
“Advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said on Monday the National Park Service is reopening national parks without instituting proper social distancing measures. “If state and local governments, and even Disney World, can enforce social distancing and ...

Detlev Helmig Was Frugal With Tax Dollars. Then CU Fired Him for Misusing Funds.

by Inside Climate News | May 29, 2020
“Yet another Zoom meeting beckoned, pulling University of Colorado scientist Detlev Helmig from his data. On Monday, April 7, 2020 he clicked into a meeting organized by Merritt Turetsky, director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) where Helmig worked. She asked ...

California’s Poppy Bloom Is so Bright, It can be Spotted by NASA’s Satellites

by Distractify | May 21, 2020
“As Green Matters explains, national parks closed their doors during the coronavirus pandemic. They had originally been ordered to waive entry fees, to “[make] it a little easier for the American public to enjoy the outdoors in our incredible National Parks,” but park-goers ...

Will reopening reignite pandemic? Tests of poop at Miami-Dade sewage plants may be first clue

by Miami Herald | May 21, 2020
“It’s long been known that human waste can carry a lot of nasty pathogens that survive passage through the bowels — from bacteria like cholera and fecal coliform to assorted viruses like hepatitis and, over the last few months, the novel coronavirus. Already in cities like Paris ...

59% of staff dissatisfied with scientific integrity — IG

by E&E News | May 20, 2020
“Fifty-seven percent of EPA staff said they were dissatisfied with the agency’s release of scientific information to the public, according to an agency watchdog report posted today. Tim Whitehouse, a former EPA enforcement attorney, called the results “awful” and ...

He opposed public lands and wildlife protections. Trump gave him a top environment job

by The Guardian | May 20, 2020
“Pendley has helped turn BLM into what one high-level employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, called “a ghost ship” in which “suspicion”, “fear” and “low morale” abound, despite the best efforts of career civil servants to support each other. ...

Watchdog Organizations Challenge Public Lands Agencies’ Leadership Appointments in Court

by Daily Yonder | May 19, 2020
“Public employees and environmental groups recently filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s appointments for two of the nation’s largest public lands management agencies. In addition to the legal and constitutional complaints, advocates also worry about agency ...

Environmentalists Fault Sending ‘Very Low Level’ Nuclear Waste to Landfills

by NBC Bay Area | May 19, 2020
“The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a rule “reinterpretation” that would allow commercial landfills to start taking in low level radioactive waste, in lieu of the four currently licensed disposal facilities nationwide. Critics, like Jeff Ruch, West Coast head ...

Nevada Urged to Protect Rare Wildflower As Mine Permitting Ramps Up

“Ten conservation groups and a renowned botanist urged the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources today to immediately review whether the imperiled Tiehm’s buckwheat wildflower should be protected under state law. The department agreed to protect it more than six ...

US national park reopenings raise fears of coronavirus outbreaks

by The Guardian | May 15, 2020
“On Wednesday, Zion national park in Utah, one of the most popular natural attractions in the US, received its first visitors in more than a month as the Trump administration continued its push to reopen the nation’s outdoors as well as it cities and businesses. Yet the phased ...

Arches, Canyonlands, Zion National Parks to reopen

by Moab Sun News | May 15, 2020
“On May 13, Zion National Park is set to begin a phased reopening amid a nationwide push to reopen businesses and public land. Arches and Canyonlands will follow suit at the end of the month on May 29 after two months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Park officials say they ...

The Energy 202: Oil companies that bought back their stock got $15.5 million in government coronavirus funds

by Washington Post | May 14, 2020
“The Western Watersheds Project and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that the Interior secretary violated the Constitution and federal law when he kept David Vela and William Perry Pendley in place as “de facto” leaders of ...

PEER Sues Over “Acting” Positions For National Park Service, BLM Directors

by National Parks Traveler | May 12, 2020
“David Vela, the de facto director of the National Park Service, and William Perry Pendley, the de facto director of the Bureau of Land Management, have been kept in their positions unconstitutionally, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. In a lawsuit filed ...

Interior sued over temporary appointments of top officials

by The Hill | May 11, 2020
“Environmentalists on Monday sued the Interior Department over its temporary appointments of top officials to positions that typically require a Senate confirmation. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington D.C., Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and ...

Lawsuit challenges Bernhardt’s ‘illegal’ appointments

by E&E News | May 11, 2020
“Interior Secretary David Bernhardt violated the Constitution and federal laws by reappointing acting directors to public lands agencies, a new federal lawsuit charges. The lawsuit targets Bernhardt’s decision to add “exercising the authority of director” to the ...

FAA ordered to manage Glacier flights

by Fairfield Sun Times | May 11, 2020
“The Federal Aviation Administration and National Park Service have about four months to start preparing a plan to manage aerial tours over Glacier National Park.A handful of businesses offer helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft flights over Glacier’s soaring stone fins and plunging ...
Phone: 202-265-7337

962 Wayne Avenue, Suite 610
Silver Spring, MD 20910-4453

Copyright 2001–2025 Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility

PEER is a 501(c)(3) organization
EIN: 93-1102740