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Text Messages Show Trump’s Top Offshore Safety Regulator Trawling for Industry Praise

by Slate | April 24, 2020
“Scott Angelle, director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, brought a very particular set of relationships to his job running the government agency largely responsible for regulating the offshore oil and gas industry. Angelle’s ...

Coronavirus Roundup: Massive Telework Expansion at EPA and USAID; Trump Seeks to Reopen National Parks

by Government Executive | April 23, 2020
“The nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said on Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency’s new guidelines for those working on toxic cleanups is confusing for employees. “EPA’s translation of this CDC guidance remains somewhat opaque” on what ...

EPA is abandoning those suffering from toxic PFAS pollution

by The Hill | April 23, 2020
“This marks the latest in a decades-long string of failures by EPA to protect Americans from these dangerous chemicals. Even as the scientific case for regulation grows clearer and more urgent every year, the EPA under President Trump delays and obfuscates. While the number of sites ...

Group blasts COVID-19 guidance as ‘downright unhelpful’

by E&E News | April 23, 2020
“A government watchdog group is raising questions about EPA protocols for its inspectors after obtaining a copy of the agency’s health guidance for the COVID-19 pandemic. The group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), charged that the agency’s ...

EPA Steps Up Health Protocol for Cleanup at Toxic Waste Sites

by Bloomberg Law | April 23, 2020
“Emergency medical technicians and thermometers should be on hand when conducting toxic waste cleanups to reduce exposure to the coronavirus, the EPA said in an internal memo released Wednesday. The memo was obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and ...

A Western Slope community wants to move beyond its coal legacy. The Trump Administration wants “energy dominance.”

by The Colorado Sun | April 23, 2020
“For nearly a decade, a group of farmers in the North Fork Valley joined with local tourism businesses and conservation groups to craft a resource management plan that could help the Bureau of Land Management shepherd the multiple uses of the valley’s public lands for the next 20 ...

PEER Earth Day Letter to the EPA

by Hudson Mohawk Magazine | April 22, 2020
HMM correspondent Spencer asked Tim Whitehouse, Executive Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), about the letter PEER wrote to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler regarding the agency’s current leadership as it plans to celebrate Earth Day. Read the PEER ...

Agency preps plans to return to work

by E&E News | April 21, 2020
“Following White House guidance issued yesterday, EPA told employees in an email last night that senior agency leadership is working on a strategy to return staffers to the workplace. Kyla Bennett, a former EPA inspector now with the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental ...

EPA and Interior ease rules amid pandemic as repeal window nears

by Congressional Quarterly | April 20, 2020
“In the weeks since the coronavirus pandemic engulfed the White House, Congress and the presidential campaign, federal agencies have responded in temporary and health-focused ways. But top political officials at agencies that regulate energy issues and the environment have been ...

Nuclear agency proposes deregulating disposal of some US radioactive waste

by Royal Society of Chemistry | April 15, 2020
“The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is facing protests after proposing that low-level radioactive waste be disposed of in commercial landfills not explicitly designed to hold it, rather than at licenced radioactive waste sites. The NRC’s proposal, issued in March, declares ...

Vacancies have hindered the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus

by Washington Post | April 15, 2020
“As President Trump tries to defend his sluggish response to the coronavirus pandemic, 18 nongovernmental organizations are pressing against agency vacancies that can hinder federal action. “We fear that the leadership vacuum in several federal agencies is weakening the nation’s ...

The Many Times the Trump Administration Exploited the Coronavirus Crisis

by Shadowproof | April 15, 2020
“The U.S. government agency tasked with regulating nuclear energy moved to massively deregulate the disposal of nuclear waste, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group known for its work representing environmental whistleblowers in government agencies. ...

Federal vacancies hamper government response to COVID-19, groups allege

by Federal Computer Week | April 15, 2020
“High level vacancies are hampering the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a group of organizations that focus on issues such as immigration, climate change, and government accountability. In a letter sent April 14 to Senate committee chairs ...

At Least 40 Interior Department Employees Tested Positive For COVID-19

by Huffington Post | April 14, 2020
“Almost every bureau of the Interior Department’s vast agency ― 70,000 employees across 2,400 nationwide offices ― has had at least one employee test positive for the virus. The Interior Department has kept these numbers private, while leaving most public parks and refuges open ...

Congress Should Withhold Support for Agency Requests Until Trump Nominates Qualified Leaders, Groups Say

by Government Executive | April 14, 2020
“The Trump administration’s “fumbling response” to the outbreak is a “symptom” of the lack of presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed leaders across agencies directly involved in those efforts, groups like the Project on Government Oversight, Public Employees for ...

Trump Administration Considers Hunting in Wildlife Refuges a Celebration of COVID-19 “Success”

by Union of Concerned Scientists | April 13, 2020
“News broke last week that the Department of Interior (DOI) is planning to open an unprecedented number of wildlife refuges to hunting and fishing. The proposed changes, if finalized, would open over 2.3 million acres of federal land across 97 national wildlife refuges and 9 fish ...

PFAS News Roundup: Indianapolis and Rhinelander find PFAS, PFAS testing and projects stalled due to COVID-19

by Great Lakes Now | April 11, 2020
“PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country. Click on the headline to read the full ...

BLM approves controversial Colo. management plan

by E&E News | April 9, 2020
“The Bureau of Land Management has approved what it calls a “balanced” land use plan for southwest Colorado that critics say unnecessarily emphasizes energy development over conservation. The government watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility ...

The National Park Service Has Not Required All Locations to Close During Coronavirus, Despite Demands

by Government Executive | April 8, 2020
“Despite calls from lawmakers, union officials and advocates, the National Park Service has not mandated that all of its locations close during the novel coronavirus outbreak. Jeff Ruch, Pacific director for the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, called NPS ...

Department of Interior’s e-bike policy under review

“The U.S. Department of Interior’s policy proposal last year to regulate e-bikes as traditional bikes on non-motorized lands is now under standard review with a public comment period. The policy proposal in August allowed e-bikes access to non-motorized trails 30 days afterward ...
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