News Clips

“The 2016 election elevated Mike Pence and Betsy DeVos—major supporters of teaching creationism—to the vice presidency and leadership of the U.S. Department of Education, respectively. DeVos is a billionaire funder of efforts to pass state laws that give science teachers the right to present anti-evolution materials in science classrooms under the guise of protecting academic...

“A York Daily Record/York Sunday News investigation has found an unregulated industry that is growing exponentially and dumping several hundred old athletic fields across the U.S. every year. When those fields reach the end of their lifespan, that waste has to go somewhere. But sending turf to a landfill is not cost effective or an industry...

“The U.S. Forest Service’s top official in Alaska told an audience in Petersburg this month that his agency is close to finalizing an audit of the timber sale program. The watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility published those agency reviews in 2017 detailing problems with oversight and administration of the logging, leading to millions...

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a Federal Register notice on November 12, 2019, announcing the availability of its response to a petition it received under Section 21 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).  84 Fed. Reg. 60986.  As reported in our August 23, 2019, blog...

On Monday, The New York Times reported a new draft of the EPA’s Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science rule that modifies a 2018 version. According to this draft, scientists would be required to disclose all of their data (including medical records) before the EPA would consider their study’s findings. The rule would retroactively apply to pre-existing public health regulations, which the...

Jeff Ruch is the Pacific Director for the Washington D.C-based Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility or PEER. Ruch says, “They’re letting the state take over a significant part of the sale administration, basically letting your neighbor come in and sort your own pantry and that’s what’s going on here.” PEER brought this very concern up...

Both the New Hampshire landfill, which is owned by Waste Management, a national company, and the Madison treatment plant were operating within the bounds of their respective permits, neither of which require monitoring for PFAS. But environmental health groups said the lack of standards or mandatory testing are precisely the problems. Tim Whitehouse, executive director...

“PFAS in synthetic turf should sound alarm bells for parents and for all municipalities with these fields,” said Kyla Bennett of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “For the health of our children and communities, we urgently need to take a hard look at PFAS in synthetic turf.” Artificial turf, installed in the Houston Astrodome in 1966, is used in 12,000 to 13,000 sports fields in...

A government watchdog on Wednesday filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management to find out why it hired a one-time, anti-public lands advocate to run the agency. The non-profit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, said it initially filed a public records request asking for emails and correspondence related to the hiring of acting director...

“November 8, 2019 – Phil Francis, Chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, released a statement in response to the recent report by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) on evaporating staff levels at the National Park Service (NPS). “The agency figures released by PEER are incredibly concerning. This report confirms what we’ve...