In a potential boon for energy companies, the Trump administration is using its final few weeks in power to advance a new regulation that would explicitly limit a federal law protecting migratory birds to exclude those killed accidentally or unintentionally. 

The proposed regulation would clarify what types of actions are prohibited under the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) by excluding the incidental take of migratory birds, according to a final environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and published Friday in the Federal Register. 

The proposed regulation, advancing in the waning days of the Trump presidency, would provide “legal certainty for the public” and “improve consistency and...