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Legal Intervention Aims to Protect North Atlantic Right Whales From Deadly Ship Strikes
Conservation groups today filed a motion to intervene to help fight a lawsuit aimed at overturning a seasonal speed rule protecting North Atlantic right whales from deadly vessel strikes. The groups want to defend the rule against a lawsuit brought by a New York vessel owner fined for violating seasonal speed limits. The suit alleges that NOAA Fisheries lacked the statutory authority to issue the rule.
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Final Rescission of Public Lands Rule Reverses Modern Land Management, Threatens Wildlife Habitat
The Bureau of Land Management today announced a decision to roll back the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, commonly referred to as the Public Lands Rule. The policy modernized how BLM manages our national public lands and represented the critical incorporation of ecological resilience into management alongside traditional resource extraction. The rule required science-based decision-making, conservation considerations within multiple land uses and a focus on sustaining public lands for the long-term benefit of wildlife and the American people.
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Trump Administration Cancels Critical Offshore Wind Projects and Increases Costs for Taxpayers
The Department of Interior this week announced that two offshore wind companies, Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind, have abandoned their developments. According to reports, the companies received some $900 million to walk away from the projects.
Press Releases
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Defenders of Wildlife Applauds Introduction of Desert Conservation bill
Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia introduced AB 2839, California Deserts Conservancy, to create a new California Desert Conservancy dedicated to the conservation of California’s iconic desert.
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Trump Administration Papers over Sage-Grouse Plans
Today, the Trump administration published supplemental environmental analyses as a band-aid to previously-issued environmental impact statements found deficient by a federal judge.
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Trump Administration Finalizes Decision to Undermine ESA Protections for Bay Delta Fish
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation issued a Record of Decision that will finalize environmentally destructive water project operations for the Central Valley Project, including substantial increases in the amount of water that can be diverted from the San Francisco Bay Delta.
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Oregon Governor Kate Brown Says Restoring the Snake River Must be Part of Plan to Save Salmon and Orcas
Late last week, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown sent a letter to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee supporting the restoration of the Snake River, saying that removing the four federal dams on the lower portion of the waterway must be part of a comprehensive plan to save endangered salmon, steelhead and orcas.
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Greater Protections Proposed for Jaguars, Sharks at International Wildlife Convention
This week, representatives from 130 countries are gathered at the meeting of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP13) in Gandhinagar, India.
jcovey@defenders.org
