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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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Dual Congressional Hearings Focus on Climate Change
Congress is holding its first hearings on climate change in the last eight years, covering the impacts of climate change and what actions are needed now to address extreme weather events like hurricanes, floods, wildfires and droughts that are exacerbated by a warming planet.
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President Trump’s State of the Union Address Emphasizes Reckless Border Security Plan
Only two weeks after his insistence on funding for a damaging and ineffective border wall triggered the longest shutdown of the federal government in history, President Trump used his State of the Union address to reiterate his divisive demands.
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Oil and Gas Lobbyist Nominated as Interior Secretary
“Defenders of Wildlife is deeply concerned that Acting Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt, who helped preside over the Trump administration’s destructive policies on our public lands and wildlife for the past two years, is being nominated for Interior Secretary."
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Sen. Udall, Heinrich Introduce Bills to Protect our Borderlands from Wall Construction
Two bills were introduced yesterday in the Senate to prevent wall construction in sensitive borderland areas.
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Organizations push back on illegal rulemaking on public information
Today, more than one hundred organizations, led by the Southern Environmental Law Center, submitted comments opposing the Department of the Interior’s proposed revisions to its regulations implementing the Freedom of Information Act.
jcovey@defenders.org
