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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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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.
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Defenders Urges Georgia to Reject Okefenokee Mining Permits as Comment Period Opens
Today, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division opened a 60-day comment period on Twin Pines Minerals’ application to mine near the Okefenokee Swamp.
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Right Whale Calves Bring Hope for the Species, but They Face an Uncertain Future
The birth of 11 North Atlantic right whale calves this breeding season so far is an encouraging sign for one of the most endangered whale species in the world. However, this time of year is one of the whales' most vulnerable, as ship strikes account for many calf deaths.
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Alaska Receives One Bid On Cook Inlet Lease Sale
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) opened and read the bids this morning for Cook Inlet federal offshore oil and gas lease sale #258. After offering close to one million acres for lease, there was only one bid. Hillcorp Alaska LLC bid $63,983 for one block.
jcovey@defenders.org
