PEER in the News
Recent press clips from national publications that relate to PEER issues, campaigns and news releases.
Lawsuit Sheds Light on Serious Drillship Incident in Gulf of Mexico During Hurricane Zeta Last Year
“A former senior engineer on board a Transocean drillship in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico has filed a civil lawsuit alleging the offshore drilling contractor and its business partners put profits and production over safety by failing to disconnect from a deepwater well in time as a hurricane was bearing down on them last October....
read moreFlorida Regulators Leave State Littered With Toxic Time Bombs
“During a hastily assembled press conference on Easter Sunday, Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, leaned into the microphone to criticize a hedge fund. An enormous, privately owned reservoir at a decommissioned fertilizer plant was leaking and at risk of collapse. If it breached, more than 400 million gallons of mildly radioactive, highly toxic...
read moreFlorida’s environmental commission hasn’t met in 4 years
“Last week, the nation watched as Florida dumped more than 200 million gallons of wastewater into Tampa Bay to avoid a community-flooding disaster. PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) tracks the number of cases that Fla’s Dept. of Environmental Protection opens each year to study potential violations and pollution. The number has plummeted since Gov....
read moreFormer Employee: Transocean Nearly Caused Oil Rig Catastrophe During Hurricane Zeta
“When Hurricane Zeta hit the Gulf of Mexico in October 2020, the storm nearly resulted in another catastrophe similar to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Jeff Ruch, the Pacific director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), urged Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to “order an in-depth inquiry” into the Deepwater Asgard incident.” Read the PEER Story…
read more3 whales on the path to extinction in US waters
“If current trends hold, the U.S. will earn the uniquely ignominious distinction of presiding over the extinction of three large whale species which largely or solely inhabit our waters. The extinction of any one of these whales would be a black eye for American conservation while the loss of all three would be an utter...
read moreLongmont City Council considers letter to investigate false air control data
“City council may ask the Colorado Attorney General to investigate allegations that Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, or APCD, officials ordered staff to falsify data and unlawfully approve permits for industrial operations “at all costs.” The letter, introduced by Martin, points to allegations filed with the EPA by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and...
read more2020’s Hurricane Zeta Nearly Caused ‘Another Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe’ in Gulf of Mexico
“It was Thursday, October 22, 2020, when the crew aboard the Transocean Deepwater Asgard, an ultra-deepwater rig in the Gulf of Mexico, started monitoring a weather disturbance in the nearby Caribbean Sea that bore the tell-tale signs of a forming hurricane. But the Asgard, which was drilling an oil well in the waters about 225 miles...
read moreScientific integrity, or more hot air?
“On Jan. 27, President Biden issued a more than 10-page executive memo to all agencies on the topic of scientific integrity. In an accompanying fact sheet, the White House claimed this action sends “a clear message that the Biden-Harris Administration will protect scientists from political interference and ensure they can think, research, and speak freely to provide valuable information...
read moreColorado State Employees Allege Misconduct Regarding Air Pollutants
“On March 30, three employees of the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Inspector General Sean O’Donnell. The group alleges that CDPHE urged them to ignore violations of air quality standards in issuing permits. In the employees’ letter, which was submitted...
read moreWhistleblowers Claim The State’s Top Air Regulator Had Them Falsify Data. Now Environmental Groups Want Him Dismissed
“Environmental groups want Gov. Jared Polis to remove Garry Kaufman, Colorado’s top air pollution regulator, after whistleblowers alleged the long-time bureaucrat ordered modelers not to analyze potential pollution violations and created a culture of approving permits “at all costs.” Kevin Bell, an attorney with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and lead counsel on the complaint,...
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