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Trump Administration Guts Public Comments for Federal Projects
The Trump administration has gutted the National Environmental Policy Act by restricting the public’s ability to participate in government decision-making and understand how our tax dollars are being spent.
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Senate Budget Reconciliation Strikes Heart of American Wildlife, Wild Places
Defenders of Wildlife hammered the Senate’s version of the budget reconciliation bill for striking at the heart of America’s wildlife and wild places.
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Defenders and Partners Urge Oregon State Action on Wildlife Conservation Bill as Two Senators Block Bipartisan Effort
A landmark bill to fund wildlife conservation in Oregon is being held up in the State Senate, despite passing the House with strong bipartisan support and clearing Senate Rules.
Press Releases
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Biden Administration Can Still Uphold Climate Promises by Rejecting ConocoPhillips’ Proposed Massive Oil and Gas Expansion in the Western Arctic
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a disappointing final supplemental environmental impact statement for the proposed Willow Master Development Plan oil and gas project today, relying again on hasty and deficient analysis to assess the impacts that the massive ConocoPhillips’ proposal would have on local communities, Arctic wilderness, water and animals and the global climate. If approved, this project would be the largest on public lands and would set back our national climate goals tremendously.
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EPA Determines Proposed Pebble Mine Poses Unacceptable Adverse Effects on Bristol Bay Wild Fishery, Denies Permit
Defenders of Wildlife applauds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal today to deny a mining permit that would adversely affect the unrivaled natural resources of the Bristol Bay region, the world’s largest wild salmon fishery and habitat for the critically endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale.
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Biden Administration Restores Roadless Area Protections to Tongass National Forest
Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reinstated the national Roadless Area Conservation Rule in the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska. The move restricts development on roughly 9.3 million acres in North America’s largest temperate rainforest.
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Vessel Strikes to Blame for Series of Whale Deaths?
On a cold winter beach in New Jersey, onlookers huddled around a 30-foot dead humpback whale lying on the sand. This was one of more than a dozen whales that have washed up on beaches along the U.S. East Coast since the beginning of December 2022. Five of these whales washed up in New Jersey, two in New York and others on the coasts of states from Maine to Florida. A total of 178 humpback whales have washed up along East Coast beaches since 2016, leading the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare an “unusual mortality event.” An investigation is underway.
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Biden Administration Sinks Emergency Petition to Shield Right Whale Moms, Calves From Vessel Strikes
NOAA Fisheries today denied an emergency petition that sought to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from being struck and killed by vessels in their calving grounds off the coast of the southeast United States. The species is down to about 70 reproductive females.
jcovey@defenders.org
