News Clips

From: Courthouse News Service “As public interest organizations, the plaintiffs argued that delays in reporting of accidental emissions make their job of raising community awareness harder — causing harm when communities aren’t warned in time of dangerous, unseen chemical emissions ...

From: Washington Post “Mehta observed that the agency has had more than 20 years — far in excess of any “unreasonable delay” — to promulgate a final regulation and ordered the board to come up with a regulation within 12 months. “The court will not grant it two full years to do ...

From: Politico “Nine of Interior’s 17 political positions are empty, according to a list compiled by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an environmental group made up of government employees. “There’s no secretary, no assistant secretary, no director of the parks ...

From: Tampa Bay Times “An environmental group is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to step in to correct what it says is the state’s failure to fix repeated violations at Tampa’s wastewater system. Tampa officials are vigorously contesting the group’s findings, saying ...

From: FedWeek “A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that could have better defined the responsibilities of agency officials to create and keep records related to their decisions, although one of the sponsors of the case has said it will continue to pursue the issue. The suit was filed ...

From: The Washington Post “From the Justice Department to Veterans Affairs, vast swaths of the government have top positions filled by officials serving in an acting capacity — or no one at all. More than two years into Trump’s term, the president has an acting chief of staff, ...

From: Energywire “Bernhardt may need more than a smile and a joyous tweet to address looming challenges for the 70,000 employees who work for him. The agency is facing concerns about a brain drain as a third of its workforce is nearing retirement age. Only 5 percent of workers are ...

From: The Hill “A January study by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility found that the number of criminal enforcement cases EPA referred to the Department of Justice collapsed in fiscal 2018, a nearly 60 percent reduction from 2011 and a 72 percent decline from the level of ...

From: Greenwire “A new recharge for the Interior Department’s many temporary leaders will keep agencies running even as it underscores the Trump administration’s tardiness in filling key slots. On Tuesday, acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt issued an order extending ...

From: Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod “Environmental damage caused by the government shutdown. Experts are saying in some instances, it will take the environment 300 years to recover. Our weekly Earth Watch guest is Jeff Ruch, Executive Director of Public Employees for ...

From: Think Progress “More than 130 groups and organizations have submitted public comments opposing the Interior Department’s efforts to crack down on public information requests — a suppression that opponents say will make it much harder to hold the government accountable on a ...

From: Coastal Review “Information provided on the Federal Register states that the Department published a final rule in 2012 that updated and replaced the Department’s previous Freedom of Information Act regulations. In early 2016, the Department updated the final rule to authorize the ...

From: Government Executive “An Interior Department proposed rule published late last month to ease the workload of its Freedom of Information Office staff has drawn fire from at least three transparency advocacy groups. The nonprofits American Oversight and Democracy Forward, as well as ...

From: Courthouse News “Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) said “a new era may be dawning” over management of the National Bison Range in Moiese, Montana. Management of the range has been inconsistent in the last decade. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai ...

From: Cleveland “With new rules imposing the greatest restrictions on the Clean Water Act since its passage in 1972, Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency has handed yet another gift to big polluters by drastically curtailing the number of protected waterways and wetlands. An ...

From: Red Green and Blue “Critics have blasted Interior for showing favoritism to the oil and gas industry during the 35-day government shutdown by calling some federal employees in to work to issue drilling permits on public lands; to keep some national parks open by diverting entrance ...

From: Earth Island Journal “Over the past several weeks national parks have been trashed, climate change research stalled, and crucial wildfire prevention work halted — all while oil and gas drilling efforts continue to cruise along and national wildlife refuges are reopened to hunters ...

From: Think Progress “The use of entrance fees to keep national parks open, along with a sudden decision to bring back department employees to work on offshore drilling and related tasks, have come under fire from House Democrats and environmental groups — they argue Acting Interior ...

From: Salon “Over the last two decades, according to the report, EPA civil penalties averaged more than $500 million a year (an average adjusted for inflation). The last fiscal year was nearly 85 percent below that, at $72 million. Barack Obama’s former EPA assistant administrator ...

From: Mondaq “Industry groups have met with EPA and have publicly expressed concerns that the updated risk assessment will be merely a “restructuring” of the original draft and will still suffer from the same scientific and methodological defects previously identified by the ...