Wild Birds Will Be Protected Once Again, As U.S. Resumes Enforcing Rules On Companies

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Pelicans take flight in the Salton Sea on the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, in Calipatria, Calif., in July.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

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Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

National
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But the administration got immediate pushback from the oil industry, which has been subject to some of the most high-profile prosecutions under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Most notable was a $100 million settlement by energy company BP, after government investigators concluded the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill killed about 100,000 birds.

The Trump administration ended enforcement against companies for accidental bird deaths in 2017, following pressure from oil companies, utilities and other industries.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America said resuming prosecutions would harm businesses that killed birds «through no fault of their own.

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Plaquemines Parish Coastal Zone Director P.J. Hahn rescues a heavily oiled bird from the waters of Barataria Bay in Louisiana June 2010.

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Gerald Herbert/AP

Environment And Energy Collaborative
Biden Moves To Make It Illegal (Again) To Accidentally Kill Migratory Birds

«We’ve lost almost 3 billion birds in the last 50 years, Ford said. «We want to create a common sense approach that works to both conserve birds and provide regulatory certainty to industry.

Under then-President Barack Obama, the Interior Department started to develop a permitting system that would have allowed industry to kill limited numbers of birds, but the work was not finished before the Democrat left office.

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Representatives of the American Bird Conservancy and National Audubon Society said they hoped to see the permit program completed. Permits would compel companies to take measures such as installing screens to keep birds out of oil pits and turning off or altering telecommunication tower lights to reduce collisions, according to the conservancy.

«It’s that deer in the headlights situation: The birds are attracted and then disoriented and collide with the towers, said conservancy spokesperson Jordan Rutter.

Relatively few enforcement cases end in prosecution

Trump’s ending of prosecutions was among dozens of environmental actions by the Republican that Biden ordered reconsidered on his first day in office. Former federal officials, environmental groups and Democrats in Congress said many of the Trump rules were aimed at benefiting private industry at the expense of conservation.

More than 1,000 North American bird species are covered by the treaty — from fast-flying peregrine falcons to tiny songbirds and more than 20 owl species. Non-native species and some game birds, like wild turkeys, are not on the list.

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Former federal officials and some scientists had said billions more birds could have died in coming decades under Trump’s rule.

Researchers have said that cats in the U.S. kill the most birds — more than 2 billion a year.

Besides the BP case, hundreds of enforcement cases — targeting utilities, oil companies and wind energy developers — resulted in criminal fines and civil penalties totaling $5.8 million between 2010 and 2018.

Enforcement will resume once Wednesday’s action goes into effect after 60 days, officials said.

Relatively few enforcement cases end with prosecutions because most companies are willing to take measures to address hazards that their operations may pose to birds, according to wildlife officials.

Courts have been split on whether companies can be prosecuted for unintentional bird deaths.