Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) ... has drafted a provision that would curtail efforts to bolster protections for the North Atlantic right whale.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and other members of the state’s congressional delegation are pushing for a provision in the massive government funding bill that could further endanger the already precarious North Atlantic right whale.
In July, a federal judge ruled that a 2021 regulation from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which established new requirements for lobster traps in an effort to reduce the risk of those traps entangling and harming or killing whales, didn’t go far enough. Among other things, the rules limited the number of vertical fishing lines that could be deployed in Maine waters and set new seasonal zone restrictions, but the ruling said the regulations fell short of legal requirements under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The judge has since given federal regulators until 2024 to come up with what are expected to be even stricter rules to safeguard the imperiled whale.
The provision, which has not yet been introduced, seeks to block those regulations and cement the 2021 rule for a minimum of 10 years. HuffPost obtained a copy of the draft language late Friday.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/sen-susan-collins-moves-block-020450933.htmlI’m sure the whale will take comfort in the fact that it’s Susan Collins pushing for this and not Marjorie Taylor Greene. This is why we need more moderates on Capitol Hill.
