Biden delays Trump bird protection rule change

BILLINGS, Mont. — The Biden administration said Thursday it was delaying a rule finalized in former President Donald Trump’s last days in office that would have drastically weakened the government’s power to enforce a century-old law protecting most wild birds.

The rule could mean more birds die, including those that land in oil pits or collide with power lines or other structures, government studies say. But, under Trump, the Interior Department sided with industry groups that had long sought to end criminal prosecutions of accidental, but preventable, bird deaths.

The new rule had been set to take effect Monday, but Interior Department officials said they were putting it off at President Joe Biden’s direction and will reopen the issue to public comment.

The migratory bird rule was among dozens of Trump-era environmental policies that Biden ordered reconsidered on his first day in office. Former federal officials, environmental groups and Democrats in Congress contend many of the Trump rules were meant to benefit private industry at the expense of conservation.

“The Migratory Bird Treaty Act is a bedrock environmental law critical to protecting migratory birds and restoring declining bird populations,” Interior spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said. “The Trump administration sought to overturn decades of bipartisan and international precedent in order to protect corporate polluters.”

A federal judge in August had blocked a prior attempt by the Trump administration to change how the treaty was enforced. But the administration was adamant that the law had been wielded inappropriately for decades to penalize companies and other entities that kill birds accidentally.

The highest-profile case brought under the law resulted in a $100 million settlement by BP after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill killed about 100,000 birds.