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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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Interior Bureaus Need Resources, Not Reorganization
News outlets are reporting that the Trump administration will essentially eliminate the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Washington DC headquarters and transfer senior leadership and the majority of the office’s roughly 500 employees to new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colorado, and other locations in the West.
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1.8 Million Americans Speak Out Against Stripping Federal Protections from Wolves
Almost two million Americans stated their opposition to the Trump administration’s proposal to strip endangered species protections from gray wolves in a comment period that closed today.
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Statement on Gov. Janet Mills’ Letter to Abandon Federal Risk Reduction for the Right Whale
Yesterday, Maine Governor Janet T. Mills sent a letter announcing she will not accept federal guidelines for reducing risk to the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale.
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Study Confirms Political Interference in Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery
A new study released today confirms politics rather than scientific data played a role in influencing criteria for listing and reintroduction efforts for the Mexican gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act.
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The ‘Recovering America’s Wildlife Act’ Does Not Adequately Respond to the Extinction Crisis
Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) introduced the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) today in the House of Representatives. The legislation would amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act to fund the Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Subaccount to support management of Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) and other purposes.
jcovey@defenders.org
