Trump just weakened one of the nation's oldest environmental laws

[douglas9]

The Interior Department has suspended a legal opinion that held companies liable for accidentally killing ducks, cranes, pelicans, owls and hundreds of other bird species.

In a memorandum dated Feb. 28 but posted online in recent days, Interior’s acting chief lawyer suspended every legal opinion issued by the Biden administration, including one that subjected companies to penalties for accidentally killing birds through activities such as oil and gas drilling, wind energy production, mining, or construction.

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Passed in 1918, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act is one of the nation’s oldest environmental laws. Congress acted after the disappearance of several once-common birds such as the passenger pigeon.

Originally adopted to stop the slaughter of birds for sport or for the use of their feathers in fashion, the law came too late for the passenger pigeon, which went extinct in 1914.

But over the decades, federal officers have marshaled the law to hold oil companies accountable after some of the nation’s biggest environmental disasters, including the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon oil spills, each of which killed hundreds of thousands of birds.

In addition to fossil fuel development, wind turbine blades can accidentally kill birds, underscoring the trade-offs of the nation’s transition to clean energy. But research suggests that house cats cause far more bird deaths in the United States each year, and that painting the turbine blades black can help reduce fatalities.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/03/10/migratory-bird-protections-suspended/

[Tonk]

1. Thank you for this despite the grim topic.

So much damage to the biosphere is flying under the radar. Good catch.