Companies in the petroleum and other industries will not be held legally responsible for killing migratory birds as long as they did not mean to, the Trump administration said Tuesday, drawing swift condemnation from animal welfare and conservation groups.
The Interior Department is scheduled to finalize the rule change Wednesday, a boon to oil and gas companies that sought weakened protections of birds from an administration in its waning days.
A draft of the final rule comes two weeks before President-elect Joe Biden assumes the presidency, as well as on the heels of a new bipartisan conservation law protecting wetlands and waterfowl. It also coincides with a sharp decline in the overall population of birds in North America.
The number of birds on the continent has dropped by 3 billion, about 30 percent, since the 1970s, according to a survey published in the journal Science in September 2019.
The waterfowl-protection law (PL 116-188) that President Donald Trump signed Oct. 30 protects birds and bird habitats.
Under the new rule, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “will […]
All these GOP monsters should be thrown out! Their ignorance is so apparent a child can see it.