I watched the MMPA ESA hearings so you don't have to

Blessings to the Democratic committee members, honestly.

Imagine you have to look your “colleague”, who is saying offshore wind causes cancer dead in the eye and say, “No, they don’t”, over and over again, while these people mainstream unfounded conspiracy theories by repeating them relentlessly. (Shoutout Mr. Magaziner of Rhode Island who rebutted witness testimony to point out once again that no, there’s no evidence offshore wind kills right whales, nor is there evidence that it causes cancer.) The Republicans and industry lawyers at this hearing LOVE to talk about offshore wind and whales, as if they aren’t Disney villains dead set on removing whales from earth.

Because IF YOU REMOVE THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ON THE HABITAT YOU WANT FOR ENERGY EXTRACTION, then you get to proceed with profiting from your industry relationships. That is the whole plan here.

It honestly helped me to attend this hearing in terms of morale around Democratic congresspeople. I felt grateful for the people whose opening statements and questions I got to hear, like Ms. Hoyle of Oregon, Mr. Huffman of California, Mr. Magaziner of Rhode Island, but the undertone really was: oil has bought half the people in this room, those people convened this hearing, and they asked the witnesses on the panel to be here, so the only lawyer I can deduce who doesn’t work to advance “projects” for energy companies (yes, I went to their websites) was Mr. Daniel Rohlf, new hero to this community.

Rohlf said, in his opening statement,

“The Supreme Court has examined the ESA and found it to be extremely clear. The plain intent of congress in enacting this statute was to halt and reverse the trend toward species extinction, whatever the cost. Most Americans agreed with this emphatic goal 50 years ago, and most American agree today. 90% of listed species are making progress toward recovery at the rate envisioned in their recovery plans. It takes time, resources, and cooperation between many parties to recover species facing extinction and restoring their habitats.”

He went on to paint a picture I found really helpful in understanding what’s happening with the various assaults on environmental regulations right now.

“In the past few weeks, we’ve seen efforts to derail species recovery efforts, as well as slow down or even halt the decisions of many federal agencies, including permitting and other decision-making processes that affect the decisions of landowners and businesses across the country. Haphazard mass layoffs and firing of many employees who manage the habitats of many listed species will leave many recovery actions undone and habitat unprotected. Though sold as “increasing government efficiency”, these cuts are incredibly inefficient, save little money, and will slow down the biological analyses and permitting that must take place before actions that affect listed species can move forward.”

He uses the example of Rice’s whale in the Gulf of Mexico in a way I found really clarifying:

• Rice’s whales lost 20% of their Gulf of Mexico population after the last big oil spill there.

• The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has a court-ordered deadline to produce new report examining impact of oil and gas leasing in Gulf of Mexico by this coming may. Layoffs, fork in the road offers, are putting in doubt this work, and future of oil and gas activities in doubt.

• Ongoing measures to fire or harass federal employees means that the people who do the analysis to find the path toward both- that analysis won’t happen.

• The president’s declaration of an “energy emergency” instructs ESA to rely on “emergency” plan, and calls for ongoing meetings of endangered species committee, a body that hasn’t convened for decades, to hand out exemptions from ESA’s protections. (See Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine or Masha Gessn’s Surviving Autocracy for more on how autocrats use “emergency” status to get exemptions for their industry backers and restrict civil liberties while they’re at it.)

As Mr. Magaziner said, “Firing experts hurts animals.”

I’ll keep watching and processing and report back soon! In the meantime, feel free to join me in sending thank you letters to Magaziner, Huffman, Hoyle, and Rohlf.

Perrin