ROLL CALL • January 6, 2023
The new year brings challenges to Biden administration regulators: how to handle environmentally unfriendly riders inserted by lawmakers into the fiscal 2023 spending bill. The provisions protect the use of lead-based bullets and fishing tackle, thwart steps to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale, and block new climate regulations under the Clean Air Act. Environmentalists condemned the inclusion of the whale rider as possibly ushering in the total collapse of the species in the wild, while Maine’s congressional delegation and governor cheered the added whale language, which delays until 2028 new fishing gear rules drafted to protect the vulnerable species. The legislative add-ons became law as populations of plants and animals are plummeting in number and researchers warn humans have driven Earth into a period of mass extinction and biodiversity loss.