With Two New Rulemakings, Trump Administration Attempts to Further Weaken Endangered Species Act

With Two New Rulemakings, Trump Administration Attempts to Further Weaken Endangered Species Act

Rules eliminate protections for threatened wildlife and prioritize "economic interests" over critical habitat

Contacts

Becca Bowe, Earthjustice, [email protected]

The Trump administration today announced it finalized two rulemakings in an attempt to weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA), putting imperiled wildlife at even greater risk. The move comes after a recent attack changing the definition of "harm" under the ESA to exclude habitat destruction.

One rule will deprive newly listed threatened animal and plant species from automatically receiving protections from killing, trapping, and other forms of prohibited "take" under the Endangered Species Act. Threatened species could now be left unprotected for years, like the Florida manatee, Pygmy rabbit, Aztec Gilia, and Clover's Cactus, among others.

Earthjustice attorney Clay Samford issued the following response:

"This decision defies the intent of the Endangered Species Act and common sense. Rather than automatically protecting threatened species, like Florida manatees, so they don't slip closer to extinction, the new rule leaves them unprotected while the agency does potentially years more paperwork to decide what protections they should receive."

Another rule will give outsize weight to "economic considerations" over science when the federal government decides whether to protect endangered species and critical habitat. This rule prevents vital protections from federal lands and other areas that the best available science shows are necessary to prevent threatened and endangered species from going extinct. The rule also gives industry interests significant influence over whether critical habitat gets protected or is allowed to be destroyed. Now, industries such as oil-and-gas, logging, and mining can use their own cherry-picked data to steer the government to exclude critical habitat.

This rule could be especially damaging in places like Hawai'i, where there limited habitat for native species found nowhere else on Earth, such as the 'iʻiwi bird, which is currently awaiting critical habitat designation where cattle ranchers have asked for areas to be excluded. In addition to the 'iʻiwi bird - green sea turtles, Monarch butterflies, polar bears, Canada lynxes, sage-grouse, and Texas hornshells are among numerous animal and plant species across the U.S. that could be impacted.

Earthjustice senior attorney Elizabeth Forsyth issued the following response:

"The Trump administration is turning the law on its head by letting extractive industries dictate where critical habitat can be destroyed. This prioritization of industry interests over science is fundamentally at odds with the clear purpose of the Endangered Species Act. We won't let this dangerous giveaway go unchallenged."

Background:

These attacks follow a series of other efforts by the Trump administration to weaken wildlife protections, including its decision to illegally exempt all oil-and-gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico from needing to comply with the Endangered Species Act, a decision that has the potential to wipe out two dozen marine species including whales and sea turtles. Earlier this week, the administration issued a decision on endangered grizzly bears that shifts management over to states that have long been hostile to the bears' existence.

President Trump has gone after the Endangered Species Act - which enjoys broad popular support and has a success rate of 99 percent - since his first administration. Some of those attacks were settled in court in March when a federal court struck down a series of regulatory changes aimed at weakening the bedrock environmental law.

Additional Resources

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