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Good News - US court helping birds (1 Viewer)

Lerxst

Well-known member
(Reuters) - A federal judge in New York on Tuesday sided with environmental groups in striking down a Trump administration decision to roll back U.S. government protections for migratory birds that made it illegal for nearly 50 years to inadvertently kill them.

In a 31-page ruling that began by invoking the famed novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni of Manhattan upheld a longstanding interpretation of the century-old Migratory Bird Treaty Act that energy companies and other businesses have opposed as too broad.

It marked the latest in a series of court rulings against numerous moves by President Donald Trump’s administration to weaken environmental safeguards viewed as burdensome to industry.

Caproni’s summary judgment held that a December 2017 Interior Department legal opinion by a Trump appointee reinterpreting the 1918 migratory bird statute violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act.

“It is not only a sin to kill a mockingbird, it is also a crime,” the judge wrote.

“That has been the letter of the law for the past century. But if the Department of the Interior has its way, many mockingbirds and other migratory birds that delight people and support ecosystems throughout the country will be killed without legal consequence.”

At stake in the case brought by several conservation groups and eight states was a policy, in effect since the early 1970s, defining an illegal “taking” under the migratory bird act as any action that caused the death of a protected species, whether deliberate or accidental.

The policy was also codified in a memorandum issued by the Interior Department at the very end of the Obama administration.

But a newly appointed Interior Department lawyer under Trump, Daniel Jorjani, suspended the Obama-era opinion.

Jorjani’s own memo stated that the “taking” prohibition had been misconstrued to prosecute those who kill birds “incidentally” as part of doing business, but were really designed to prevent poaching and hunting without a license.

Jorjani held that the law applies only to “direct and affirmative purposeful actions” that destroy migratory birds, their eggs or their nests.

But Judge Caproni wrote that the Jorjani opinion “is simply an unpersuasive interpretation of the (1918 law’s) unambiguous prohibition on killing protected birds.”

Her ruling restores the longstanding incidental taking policy under the statute, enacted by Congress to implement a 1916 treaty between the United States and Britain.
 
I was so very happy when I read about this yesterday on Facebook. I commented with a big YES!!!!!!
 
So, does this also eliminate the protection that the Obama administration gave wind power companies that allowed them to kill up to 4,200 Bald Eagles?

https://apnews.com/b8dd6050c702467e8be4b1272a3adc87/final-wind-energy-rule-permits-thousands-eagle-deaths

Trump gave oil and natural gas companies the same protection that the wind power companies had. During the Obama administration, seven oil and natural gas companies where prosecuted for killing 28 birds. Meanwhile wind power companies killed thousands with no repercussions.

I would like to see all industry held to the same standard.
 
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Excellent news and an excellent summation by Lerxst - Thank you for posting.

Jemepler, I agree and the difference in approach is probably explained by the difference in energy policies. But to put it into a slightly different context - I wonder how many bird casualties have caused by business cars and lorries on the road? 89 million-350 million? or by the glass walled buildings housing these businesses - around 600 million migratory birds die in the US each year from window strikes.

It’s hardly surprising the populations of so many species are in serious decline.
 
It's great, but it's only a District Court opinion. Could be reversed by the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court.

And no, I don't think it has anything to do with the wind power exception and the balancing of interests between global warming/pollution reduction and the unfortunate killing of birds of prey. I haven't reviewed the details in many years, but I believe the MBTA always permitted the government to grant certain limited exceptions; but I believe what the Trump administration was trying to do was do away with incidental take prohibitions entirely by reinterpreting the statute.
 
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