Environment & Land Use Partner Paul Weiland Testifies Before Congress in ESA and MMPA Hearing
On February 26, 2025, Paul Weiland testified before the United States House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries on the implementation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act and the possibility of updating the Acts. His testimony was covered in a number of media outlets, including E&E News.
E&E noted in the 2024 Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision, the Supreme Court directed federal courts to exercise independent judgment to determine how to interpret federal statutes. During the hearing, it was put forward repeatedly that Congress stepping in to clarify the interpretation process would be helpful. Paul said, “When all these acts were passed in the ’70s, it was contemplated there would be regular reauthorization.” He added, "This has essentially halted. As a consequence, we are left with acts that are really being interpreted by agencies and by judges, rather than Congress going in and being able to revisit and clean those up.”
Inside Climate News also covered Paul’s testimony, noting before he became a partner at Nossaman, he “worked in the Law and Policy section in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.” The publication went on to report Paul “told the committee that for decades, regulated communities have contorted themselves to follow rules from the two acts that lack sufficient scientific research” and he “cited the National Marine Fisheries Service vessel speed rule as an example of the overreach permitted through the conservation laws.”
The rule imposes a speed limit of 10 knots on most vessels greater than 65 feet in length on the Eastern Seaboard to reduce collisions with the endangered North Atlantic right whales. Commenting further on the rule, Paul said it “exemplifies one circumstance in which the precautionary principle can result in an absurd outcome, that is when the regulation of a vast amount of human activity that causes no harm occurs for the purpose of curbing a minuscule amount of human activity that causes harm.”
