PEER is an association
of resource managers, scientists, law enforcement officials and
other government professionals committed to upholding the public
trust through the responsible management of the nation's environment
and natural resources. For many years, it had argued that the
enforcement activities of federal agencies and prosecutors were
so erratic that they were undermining the basic purposes of numerous
environmental laws adopted by Congress. But the evidence supporting
this belief was largely anecdotal. In 1998, PEER contracted with
TRAC to develop a special environmental data set and research
tool by which the data could be explored. The goal was to give
PEER a systematic way to examine where, how, and when federal
agencies and prosecutors actually were enforcing these laws. In
December of 1998, PEER published a 44-page report, Uneven Justice,
examining the overall environmental enforcement record of the
Clinton Administration and presenting a special report card on
the comparative performance of each of the 90 U.S. Attorneys.
The report can be found at http://www.peer.org.
