This story will be updated.
Maine’s congressional delegation has inserted a six-year pause on new regulations intended to protect endangered right whales into a key federal spending package as it seeks to protect a lobster industry that says it is under siege.
The provision will help a vital Maine industry that had been hit with too many regulations despite its lack of threat to the endangered whales, Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King, Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden and Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement.
“Without our provision, Maine’s iconic industry could be facing a complete shutdown — and the ripple effects across our state would have been widespread,” they said.
The late-breaking move comes just days before Congress is expected to approve a massive $1.7 trillion spending bill that would fund the government through next fall. Conservation groups that have squared off with Maine and the industry were angered by the move, which was done in consultation with the Maine Department of Marine Resources and will be hard to reverse.
The efforts came as debate and controversy around right whale conservation reached a fever pitch in Maine, gaining notice more recently due to Whole Foods’ decision to stop selling Maine lobster and President Joe Biden serving lobster from the state at the White House as his Department of Commerce pushes regulations that the industry says will endanger it.
If passed, the language would effectively dampen the results of a federal court decision this year that said the federal government wasn’t doing enough to help right whales. It would also provide millions to help the industry adapt to regulations that may be imposed later on.
It remains to be seen how environmental groups will fight the provision, which along with the rest of the federal spending bill still needs to pass in Congress. The Conservation Law Foundation, which is part of the lawsuit, said anyone who voted for the bill had the “blood of a magnificent endangered species on their hands.”
“Sneaking this move into a spending bill is a profound and disturbing end run around the legal system,” Erica Fuller, a senior attorney for the group, said in a statement.
