Accomplishments

See our 2018 Highlights.

See our 2017 Highlights.

See our 2016 Highlights.

Accomplishments

For more than two decades PEER has been on the front lines of protecting public employees who protect the environment. In the past quarter century, we have: 

  1. Shut the pathway for lead poisoning for 1.4 million children under age 7 living in 5 million older residential units with lead paint. A PEER lawsuit forced long-overdue rules requiring that all repairs and renovations on these older houses and apartments be conducted in a lead-safe manner. 
  2. Strengthened protections for federal whistleblowers through litigation, such as restoring U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers  and negotiating the biggest federal whistleblower settlement. These victories not only created groundbreaking case law but also forced a measure of that most elusive element – accountability. 
  3. Created safeguards for government scientists and the integrity of their research. This work includes not only new legal protections for scientists  but our efforts validating their technical work and exposing official acts of scientific fraud and censorship. 
  4. Won important government reforms, such as preventing losses of billions by insulating federal land appraisals from political influence and exposing how the Army Corps of Engineers cooks its books on cost-benefit analyses to falsely justify multi-billion dollar projects.  This latter case caused the removal of two generals and a colonel, blocked Congressional authorization of any new navigation projects for six years and framed an issue carrying the shorthand name “Corps Reform.”
  5. Shielded public lands from abuse by uprooting all genetically modified crops from wildlife refuges, and halting off-road vehicles from destroying national forests,  parks,  and fragile desert lands. 
  6. Defended wildlife by winning steps to prevent ship-strikes on the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale  and harassment of manatees by “swim-with” tourists.  PEER is a leader is fighting against the militarization of wildlife management. 
  7. Forced adoption of safeguards for human exposure testing of pesticides and other toxins. This follows our expose of EPA endorsing testing insecticides on toddlers in an infamous experiment it was forced to cancel.