Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group that represents federal workers, has also filed a lawsuit to force Interior to turn over more documents detailing spending on Freedom 250 and separate spending by the National Park Service to prepare Washington-area monuments for ...

“Waiving environmental laws to ram a $1.7 billion border wall through Big Bend National Park is fiscally reckless, ineffective, and an unconscionable sacrifice of one of America’s most irreplaceable wild landscapes,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public ...

Tim Whitehouse, the executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) told CNN that Trump’s “partisan events” are “not what the American people deserve on their 250th birthday.” PEER has sued the Trump administration over its refusal to release key ...

The NFF is a congressionally chartered foundation that raises private donations to support national forests. Because its official mission is to support the Forest Service, the use of funds from the NFF for anything unrelated to that purpose could subject the foundation to extra scrutiny ...

EPA has rolled out a new approach to reviewing the health risks for existing chemicals, a results-focused, streamlined strategy that advocates warn could skirt necessary public health precautions. An internal training video, obtained and released by watchdog group Public Employees for ...

But EPA staff who spoke to CNN say the shift in the agency’s culture goes beyond the video. Kyla Bennett of PEER said she worries the changes are significant and could extend beyond the Trump administration. “The culture within these agencies outlives the people,” she said. “That ...

Watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a lawsuit last month demanding key documents behind Freedom 250’s funding scheme. The organization is asking whether Freedom 250 siphoned $100 million in taxpayer dollars from the competing America 250 while co- ...

Democrats and other critics have raised questions about whether funds appropriated by Congress for America250 have been diverted to the White House group and combined with private donations that are not being disclosed. The watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility ...

Watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a lawsuit last month demanding key documents behind Freedom 250’s funding scheme. The organization is asking for details about the project siphoning $100 million in taxpayer dollars from the competing America 250 ...

This week on Green Street, Patti and Doug talk about the rise of anti-bacterial resistance due to climate change, and the EPA’s latest attempt to weaken drinking water standards for PFAS chemicals. Then former EPA scientist Dr. Kyla Bennett, senior scientist at Public Employees for ...

The idea that the administration is going to destroy its way out of the Pfas problem is “nonsensical”, said Kyla Bennett, a former EPA scientist. It parallels fossil fuel industry attempts to use unreliable carbon capture technology as a solution – both offer the appearance of ...

“Thousands of Yellowstone employees and their families have been and/or are currently being exposed to harmful levels of lead through the paint in their housing,” states the disclosure, filed by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in late April with the U.S ...

A year ago, the Interior Department pitched a sweeping reorganization as a way to save money and streamline operations. We look at what the evidence actually shows about how that played out. “They’re moving things around on paper without recognizing the effects that may have in ...

While the reorganization was implemented to “achieve effectiveness, accountability, and cost savings for the American taxpayer,” the DOI has failed to provide documents demonstrating such savings. According to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), SO 3429 ...

‘These numbers represent a diminution of scientific contributions from the fewer, remaining EPA scientists,’ stated Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney who is Peer’s science policy director and formerly worked at the EPA. ‘It is as if EPA is seeking to reduce the sum total of ...

Also on Monday, the White House released a proposed rule that would overhaul the BLM’s grazing regulations, reviving and advancing an earlier effort to weaken government oversight on 155 million acres of public land across the West. The rule would eliminate public input on grazing ...

In late February, PEER’s FOIA requests sought information from DOI on reports that public funds are being directed to Freedom 250 through the congressionally chartered National Park Foundation, “with no transparency, no accountability, and no guardrails.” “America’s 250th ...

PEER alleges that the Trump administration is using Freedom 250 to redirect $100 million in taxpayer funds from America 250 without congressional approval, mix private funding and public taxpayer money without oversight, sell “access to President Trump” for up to $2.5 million, solicit ...

The Department of the Interior has refused to release documents related to President Trump’s controversial Freedom 250 initiative, prompting watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility to file a lawsuit in the United States District Court in Washington, DC. Congress ...

On Monday, the White House proposed “sweeping” changes to how the agency manages grazing allotments without preparing full Environmental Impact Statements to understand “the cumulative impacts to wildlife, watersheds, land health and public oversight,” said the ...