Environment, Energy & Climate Change
The Environment, Energy & Climate Change program is designed to protect whistleblowers and support accountability in the environmental realm, emphasizing the deeply intertwined nature of environmental protection, energy production, and global climate change. While we focus considerable attention on environmental impacts related to the production, transportation, and consumption of fossil fuels – particularly as it relates to climate impacts – discreet topics like chemical pollution and nuclear safety are also well within our purview. We pay close attention to the interconnectivity among energy, climate, and the environment.
We provide effective, results-oriented legal representation to those with the courage to stand up to unlawful and unethical behavior in the public or private sector. Our clients have included government employees, corporate whistleblowers, and private citizens empowered to expose threats to environment and public health. The current patchwork of whistleblower laws offers varying degrees of protection and requires expertise to navigate.
The EE&CC team often works in collaboration with other Government Accountability Project programs, such as National Security, Education, Public Health, our International program, and our Food Integrity Campaign (FIC). We bring expertise in environmental law and policy to cross-cutting topics, from chemical pollution to climate impacts. Climate Science & Policy Watch (CSPW) – our flagship initiative founded in 2005 by federal whistleblower Rick Piltz – holds public officials accountable for responsibly using climate science research in policymaking with integrity. Through this variety of partners, allies, and colleagues, we are able to address a broad spectrum of issues where environment and accountability intersect.
Focus Areas
We are built to be flexible, timely, and capable of handling whistleblower cases relating to a broad spectrum of topics and issue areas. Our cases deal with whistleblower disclosures revealing waste, fraud, or abuse of power or resources, or wrongdoing resulting in threats to human health or the environment. We also explore topics where accountability and transparency issues intersect with environmental impacts where whistleblower disclosures may serve to provide effective oversight that is otherwise lacking.
Our areas of focus include:
Whistleblower Profiles
Whistleblowers play an essential role in the environmental movement and in shaping public policy and corporate practices.
Our Work
Media
U.S. Military Planes “Crop Dusted the Workers” During BP Oil Spill Clean Up
Corexit was a public relations triumph because it falsely made it look like the oil disappeared. But it didn’t. Rather the so-called dispersant fused with the oil to create a new, far more toxic compound that sank to the sea floor, creating an underwater Death Valley. Even worse, the price was grotesque human tragedy.
“They just guinea pigged him to death,” Exxon Worker’s Medical Horror Story
“He suffered for 30 years and unfortunately didn’t live long enough to see the other side of the 30 years - and maybe this is the way we do that,” she said.
Six Months into Investigating Government Missteps in East Palestine
What is the EPA hiding? Why did they not remediate the worst threat first? Why are they refusing to test residents’ homes near the derailment site? Why are the agencies withholding information?
FOIA Discovery Shows EPA’s Missteps Put East Palestine in Harm’s Way
April 3, 2024 FOIA Discovery Shows EPA’s Missteps Put East Palestine in Harm's Way WASHINGTON – On September 21, 2023, Government Accountability Project filed a Freedom of Information Act request that would launch an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) actions following the East Palestine Train Derailment. After a long and argumentative process, we received documents from the EPA on how it signed off on the vent and burn of the five vinyl chloride [...]
Resources
Speaking Up for Science: A Guide to Whistleblowing for Federal Employees and Contractors (2018)
Science whistleblowers have historically functioned as one of the most powerful vehicles for exposing environmental, health, and safety risks, research censorship, gross mismanagement, and other abuses that undermine the missions of federal agencies to protect the public interest. This free guide seeks to empower and protect federal employees of conscience by offering guidance about their legal rights to blow the whistle and practical advice for making disclosures about wrongdoing in the safest and most effective ways possible.
Protecting Science at Federal Agencies: How Congress Can Help (2018)
This report was developed by a coalition of prominent watchdog and advocacy groups – including Government Accountability Project – and chronicles a litany of recent attacks on federal science and scientists by Trump administration officials intent on undermining the critical regulatory role government plays in safeguarding public health and safety.
Promoting and Sustaining the National Climate Assessment After a Period of Suppression and Political Influence (2016)
This report analyzes the suppression of the first National Climate Assessment during the George W. Bush administration. By detailing how officials systematically censored sensitive climate change information, it presents a strong case for supporting and defending the USGCRP and the climate change impacts assessment process.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster was the largest U.S. oil spill in history. Evidence, including accounts from dozens of impacted residents and volunteer cleanup workers, suggests that cleanup efforts were more destructive to human health and the environment than the spill itself.
Our initial report from 2013 has led to two follow-up reports, through which it can be seen that the human and environmental health impacts associated with oil and chemical dispersants from the disaster are ongoing: