Wrangell Sentinel -

WASHINGTON (AP) — Companies in the oil and gas and other industries will not be held legally responsible for killing migratory birds as long as they did not mean to do it, the Trump administration said, drawing swift condemnation from animal welfare and conservation groups.

The Interior Department rule change is a plus for oil and gas companies that sought weakened protections of birds in the administration’s waning days. The rule change came just two weeks before President-elect Joe Biden assumes the presidency, and on the heels of a new bipartisan conservation law protecting wetlands...