Panel to debate overhaul of marine mammal law
A Natural Resources Subcommittee will also consider fish and land management bills.
A House Natural Resources subcommittee on Tuesday will meet to discuss a slate of bills, including a controversial draft to reform the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The discussion draft, credited to Alaska Republican Rep. Nick Begich, would scale down the scope of the MMPA and raise the bar for the federal government to take action to protect marine mammals like whales, dolphins, seals and polar bears. Environmental advocates have warned that, as written, the bill would gut the MMPA and expose myriad species to extinction.
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), chair of the Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee, earlier this year called the MMPA "well-intentioned" but nevertheless complained that "ambiguous, outdated and unclear language has proven unworkable."
According to a statement of policy in the discussion draft, Republicans are pushing to amend the law because its implementation has “unduly and unnecessarily constrained government, tribes, and the regulated community.”
Democrats, however, plan to fight back against the draft bill at the hearing. "We'll be there to ask the tough questions and to remind them that these protections exist for a reason,” said Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the subcommittee, in a statement.
Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrat on the full committee told POLITICO's E&E News, "They've had MMPA in their crosshairs for the [last] couple of years." He blamed the fossil fuel industry for wanting to loosen restrictions on survey and construction work, as well as fishing interests.
"This is an extreme attack for sure — one that would take us back to the days when Americans were horrified by images of dolphins in tuna nets and whales being slaughtered, and that public outrage is how we got the MMPA," he said.
One environmental group called it "one of the most extreme attacks on marine wildlife in decades."
“It’s because of the MMPA that iconic species like polar bears, Florida manatees, humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins are still with us today," said Rachel Rilee, oceans policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. "If this bill passes, the ocean will never be the same.”
While the bill could pass the Republican-controlled House, it would likely be dead on arrival in the Senate.
Among the bill’s major changes are the rewriting of key definitions that raise the bar for ocean regulators to protect a marine mammal.
The draft slices parts of the law that Republicans argue hew too much to the “precautionary principle,” a theory that argues for action when adverse outcomes are likely but not certain.
For instance, the law currently defines harassment of a marine mammal as actions “having the potential” to injure or disturb. The new bill would remove that language.
It would also adjust the definition of an “optimum sustainable population.” Currently, that is defined as a population “which will result in the maximum productivity” of a species. The new bill would change that to ‘‘necessary to support the continued survival."
The legislation would block several specific reasons for decisions or determinations under the MMPA, including a “likely marine mammal presence,” the “estimated number of marine mammals in a species or stock” or the “estimated geographic range of a marine mammal species or stock.”
By: Garrett Downs, Daniel Cusick
Source: Politico Pro
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