A bipartisan group of former government officials this week urged the Trump administration to reconsider its decision to ease rules energy companies have to follow on bird kills.

“This is a new, contrived legal standard that creates a huge loophole, allowing companies to engage in activities that routinely kill migratory birds so long as they were not intending that their operations would ‘render an animal subject to human control,” said the 17 authors of the letter, which include Department of the Interior officials from the Carter, Nixon, Ford, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama administrations.