Conservation controversy
Environmentalists set to fight federal effort to ease provisions of Endangered Species Act
A major overhaul to the Endangered Species Act announced Monday is stirring controversy.
The changes end blanket protections for animals newly deemed threatened and allow federal authorities for the first time to take into account the economic cost of protecting a particular species.
The Trump administration says the changes are designed to reduce regulations while still protecting species, but environmentalists, promising a court fight, said the changes will push more animals and plants to extinction because of threats from climate change and human activities. The act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1973.
At least 10 attorneys general joined conservation groups in protesting an early draft of the changes.
“The revisions finalized with this rule-making fit squarely within the president’s mandate of easing the regulatory burden on the American public, without sacrificing our species’ protection and recovery goals.”
Wilbur Ross U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Trump administration on Monday announced a major overhaul to the Endangered Species Act that it said would reduce regulations. Environmentalists said the changes would push more animals and plants to extinction because of threats from climate change and human activities.
The changes end blanket protections for animals newly deemed threatened and allow federal authorities for the first time to take into account the economic cost of protecting a particular species.
The Endangered Species Act protects more than 1,600 species in the United States and its territories.
“The best way to uphold the Endangered Species Act is to do everything we can to ensure it remains effective in achieving its ultimate goal – recovery of our rarest species,” Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt said in a statement. “The act’s effectiveness rests on clear, consistent and efficient implementation.”
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said, “The revisions finalized with this rule-making fit squarely within the president’s mandate of easing the regulatory burden on the American public, without sacrificing our species’ protection and recovery goals.”
The act helped save the bald eagle, California condor, the grizzly bear and dozens of other animals and plants from extinction since President Richard Nixtion on signed it into law in 1973.
At least 10 attorneys general joined conservation groups in protesting an early draft of the changes, saying they would put more wildlife at greater risk of extinction.
“These changes crash a bulldozer through the Endangered Species Act’s lifesaving protections for America’s most vulnerable wildlife,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “For animals like wolverines and monarch butterflies, this could be the beginning of the end.
“We’ll fight the Trump administra in court to block this rewrite, which only serves the oil industry and other polluters who see endangered species as pesky inconveniences,” he said. “We’ll do everything in our power to get these dangerous regulations rescinded, including going to court.”
Drew Caputo of the environmental group Earthjustice said, “This effort to gut protections for endangered and threatened species has the same two features of most Trump administration actions: It’s a gift to industry, and it’s illegal. We’ll see the Trump administration in court.”