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National Park Service Getting Around To eBike Regulations

by National Parks Traveler | April 3, 2020
“More than six months after Interior Secretary David Bernhardt ordered the National Park Service to expand access for eBike users in the National Park System, the agency is getting around to drafting regulations for the motorized cycles and would soon seek public input. Back in ...

Officials call for Grand Canyon closure to help stem coronavirus spread

by Cronkite News | March 31, 2020
“Arizona lawmakers joined local and tribal officials Tuesday calling on the Interior Department to reverse its “reckless” decision to keep Grand Canyon National Park open during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental ...

Groups Want Pause on State Water Project Permits

by Memphis Flyer | March 30, 2020
“Clean-water advocacy groups are asking state officials to postpone new water permits until after coronavirus orders have been lifted here to ensure the public has a say on projects that affect the “lives and lands of Tennesseans.” These permits include permissions to ...

COVID-19 Isn’t Slowing Down Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks

by Westword | March 27, 2020
“The coronavirus pandemic has brought life to a standstill in many parts of the world, but much to the dismay of environmental and activists, it isn’t holding back President Donald Trump’s efforts to weaken clean-air protections and sell off public lands for private gain. In ...

Environmentalists Say EPA Is Abandoning Its Mission By Reducing Enforcement Because Of COVID-19

by WGBH | March 27, 2020
LeMoult: Well, I’m told they really haven’t been able to do much of their jobs since this whole pandemic began. But I talked with Kyla Bennett today. She’s the science director for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is known as PEER, that’s ...

Hazardous chemicals and government silence — a dangerous mix

by The Hill | March 26, 2020
“Tort litigation has yielded multi-million-dollar verdicts for chemical exposure victims, prompted a documentary and a Hollywood feature film about the chemicals’ perils. Yet, the Environmental Protection Agency has failed to designate waste containing the chemicals as &# ...

Ride Out the Coronavirus in Your Backyard, Not the Backcountry

by Sierra | March 26, 2020
“Visitors are surging to national parks as people across the country seek relief from coronavirus shelter-in-place orders. In the past week, Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco experienced what park officials described as “unprecedented visitation.” Thousands of ...

Grand Canyon open, services and food aren’t

by Ahwatukee Foothills News | March 25, 2020
“Grand Canyon National Park is still open, but the same cannot be said for lodging and food services in the park that will be shuttered for the next two months by concerns over coronavirus. Grand Canyon Lodging on Thursday announced the “difficult decision” to suspend operations ...

New EPA order limits telework post-pandemic

by The Hill | March 24, 2020
“A newly implemented order from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires employees to work from the office at least three days per week, though the agency says it does not apply to the current situation involving the coronavirus pandemic. Tim Whitehouse, the executive ...

County health officials ask Yellowstone to close, while Glacier sees busy weekend

by KVPI | March 23, 2020
“Health officials in Park and Gallatin counties have called on Yellowstone National Park’s superintendent to lock the gates. A Yellowstone spokesperson said park Superintendent Cam Sholly did not have a response to the requests. She instead said the agency is standing by ...

National parks are getting “mixed messages” on coronavirus guidance

by Government Executive | March 23, 2020
“National parks are getting “mixed messages” on coronavirus guidance, the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said on Monday. Over 100 have closed, but most are still open and the Interior Department waived entrance fees to all parks. PEER said the ...

Will FOIA be a pandemic casuality?

by E&E News | March 20, 2020
“The Bureau of Land Management missed a key deadline in an ongoing lawsuit over Freedom of Information Act requests due to the agency’s response to the COVID-19 outbreaks. The disclosure, made in internal communications between the Justice Department and the plaintiff, Public ...

Rangers at Risk as Parks Remain Open in Pandemic, Advocates Say

by Bloomberg | March 20, 2020
“Former Interior Department employees and advocacy groups say the Trump administration isn’t doing enough to protect federal employees as it allows national parks to remain open—and with free entrance to the public—during the coronavirus pandemic. “The risk to average ...

Grand Canyon lodging, food services shuttered in face of coronavirus

by Verde News | March 20, 2020
“Grand Canyon National Park is still open, but the same cannot be said for lodging and food services in the park that will be shuttered for the next two months by concerns over coronavirus. The Grand Canyon Lodging announcement comes one day after Interior Secretary David Bernhardt ...

Second EPA employee tests positive for coronavirus

by The Hill | March 19, 2020
“A second Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee has tested positive for coronavirus, and another worker has come into contact with someone who tested positive. The EPA sent an email to staff Thursday informing them that the two employees work in the New England region, which ...

Anti-PFAS advocates obtain test results from U.S. military

by Colorado Springs Independent | March 18, 2020
“Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a nonprofit group that protects government workers who support environmental activism, released the results of tests for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in private wells south of the Air Force Academy. PFAS, a ...

DEC Minimizes Concern Over New Dunn Dump PFAS Report

by WAMC/Northeast Public Radio | March 17, 2020
“After traces of PFAS chemicals were found in water samples taken near the Dunn Landfill in Rensselaer, activists are stepping up their campaign to convince the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to close the landfill. Kyla Bennett from PEER – Public ...

Former Officials Call Fowl

by Politico | March 17, 2020
“Former communications officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called on the Interior Department’s internal watchdog to investigate “potential ethical and procedural violations” stemming from a FWS press release, Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. The Jan. ...

The Park Service is selling out to telecom giants

by High Country News | March 16, 2020
“The telecom giants — AT&T, Verizon and more — are pushing to build out infrastructure on protected public lands across the country. These corporations hope to extend their reach into some of the most iconic and remote corners of the United States.  And they have found a ...

Ex-Hill aide, vocal Trump ally returns to EPA in key role

by Greenwire | March 16, 2020
“A vocal defender of President Trump’s environmental and energy agenda starts today as EPA’s chief of staff. Mandy Gunasekara has returned to the Trump EPA after resigning from the agency more than a year ago. She was a top air policy adviser, rising to the position of ...
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