Many people have suffered under the Biden government, whether they were crushed by Bidenflation or oppressed by overregulation.
Lobstermen in Maine are well aware of this second part.
The National Marine Fisheries Service of the Biden administration (NMFS) imposed a regulation that could destroy an industry that is already challenging. Lobstermen sued Biden in court.
The Maine Lobstermen’s Association sued the Biden administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service last year for its new rule, which the government claimed was aimed to protect the North Atlantic Right Whale, but lobstermen claimed that it threatened to put small family-owned lobster fishing businesses out of business.
This rule set out new technical standards for how much lobster trap line could be used in the water. It would reduce the number of lobster traps deployed by half.
NMFS defended their rule in court, stating that the Endangered Species Act requires that they make rules based upon worst-case scenarios. They also “give the species the benefit of doubt”.
The Biden team is concerned about the endangered whale, but not about the lobstermen and their families who are also endangered.
The U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit was not having it, and gave the lobstermen a huge win over the Biden team.
In his opinion, Judge Douglas Ginsburg slammed the NMFS.
“The Service’s reasoning on the law was not only wrong, it was egregiously incorrect. The Service’s argument was based on a single half-sentence from the legislative history. Ginsburg stated that this ‘approach’ is a remnant of an old era in statutory construction.
The Service has admitted that it is using the legislative history to provide duties which are not in the law. According to the Supreme Court, “we cannot approve such a careless disregard of statutory interpretation.”
Judge Ginsburg seemed to criticize the agency’s rulemaking for its historical hypocrisy. “Only a couple of years ago, when the Service was reviewing its interpretive rules it agreed with the commenters that “nothing” in the ESA mandated it to use “a worst-case scenario”, or make excessively conservative modeling assumptions. It also rejected comments that it should give a species the benefit the doubt by evaluating “effects or actions that were possible, even if they weren’t likely. “” he said.
Dustin Delano (former vice president of MLA, now chief operating office of New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, NEFSA) hailed the decision, calling it “a rare and long-sought win for lobstermen.” This “skewed, unjustified” approach could have “disrupted an iconic industry.”
What a skewed picture was this? The MLA claims that right whales do not even live on the Maine coast. In 2004, a Maine lobsterman reported the last entanglement involving a whale. Since then, there have been no serious injuries or deaths to whales in the area. What is the purpose of this, other than to put the fishermen out-of-business?
The government wanted to keep them in the dark despite the fact that the Maine fishermen paid a lot of money to avoid these issues.
Even Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine, has previously criticized the Biden administration for this.
In 2020, Biden, who was running for President, pledged to work to protect the safety and livelihood of the fishing community. This is in reference to the lobstermen. Golden stated in October that he has not taken a single step to fulfill his promise. You cannot claim to be a president who is for the working class while at the same time destroying an entire blue collar fishery, its heritage, and way of living.
Golden also called out Biden’s hypocrisy for having a huge lobster feast at the French State Dinner, when his actions were hurting the lobster industry.
Biden says he is for the working class, but his actions prove otherwise. Republicans should tell Americans how much Biden hurts workers, like lobstermen, as much as possible during the campaign.
The kicker is that many people believe Biden and the greens are more dangerous to whales than Maine lobstermen. My colleague Bob Hoge reported that there is a controversy about what has been killing a lot whales near the coasts of New York City and New Jersey. Many believe it is because of the construction of wind turbines on the ocean floor in the affected area, but the government and certain scientists disagree.
A New Jersey senator calls out the problem, noting that it is bad for tourism as well.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has now opened an investigation on the impact of this offshore wind development along New Jersey’s coastline, amid calls for the moratorium following the deaths of whales. In March, Chris Smith (R – NJ) called for this investigation.
Smith stated in a press release that “this aggressive independent investigation into ocean-altering effects of the 3,400 off-shore wind turbines planned for the Jersey Shore” will help answer the wide-ranging concerns and questions that the Biden administration and Governor [Phil] Murphy have continued to dismiss while they continue with their unprecedented industrialization of offshore wind on our shore. [….]
Local officials report that since December, 39 whales, 37 dolphins, and a sperm whale have been found on beaches along the East Coast near offshore wind survey sites. [….]
In the days following his election, Biden ordered his administration to increase opportunities for offshore wind as part of an aggressive climate agenda designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and end global warming. He announced his goal to deploy 30 gigawatts (or more) of offshore wind power by 2030. This was the most ambitious goal in the world.
If we used the same “worst case scenario” standard as the Biden team wished to use for the lobstermen, they would have to apply the rules to these turbines. We’re not seeing it.
Joe Biden is displaying a bit more hypocrisy.
