Trump Administration Slashes Endangered Species Act
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| Trump himself has said that the most powerful driving motivation in his life is revenge. Here may be the moment when endangered species got onto Trump's hit list. |
In an abbreviated
half-hour press conference on Monday, August 12, officials from the Department
of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration announced a series of new regulations critics
say will put economic interests before species recovery and threaten the
efficiency of all species protections.
Tellingly, many of the
regulatory changes appear to have been written specifically to cater to
business interests. They will “provide regulatory assurances and protection
for both endangered species and the businesses [emphasis
added] who rely on the use of federal and private lands,” Karen Budd-Falen,
Interior’s deputy solicitor for fish, wildlife and parks, said in her
introduction to the press conference.
Budd-Falen is a longstanding opponent of
the Endangered Species Act and public lands, whose previous roles include
advocating for private-property rights and serving as attorney for the notorious Cliven
Bundy family.
The rules also appear to be a sneak attack against federal-level protections. Margaret Everson, Fish and Wildlife’s principal director, said in her remarks that the regulations will “return management of recovered species to the states.”
Numerous critics and
studies have shown that most states are ill equipped to take over federal
responsibility for protecting endangered species. The prospect of state
management was not discussed further in the press conference.
Prior to joining the Service last year, one of Everson’s last duties as a private consultant was speaking at a legal education course sponsored by Safari Club International, a pro-hunting organization with a record of fights against the Endangered Species Act.
Prior to joining the Service last year, one of Everson’s last duties as a private consultant was speaking at a legal education course sponsored by Safari Club International, a pro-hunting organization with a record of fights against the Endangered Species Act.
The new regulations, which were
discussed in what little detail the press conference would allow, include
changes to the way critical habitat is determined, limitations on protecting
species based on “speculative” future threats (e.g., climate change),
consideration for some economic interests when considering species protections,
and changes in the way threatened species (those likely to become endangered)
are managed.
Gary Frazer, Fish and
Wildlife’s assistant director for endangered species, said during the event
that “nothing in here is a radical change from how we have been listing species
in the last decade or so,” but conservation experts obviously disagreed — and
many groups have already promised lawsuits.
Legal and political
resistance aside, these changes are final upon publication in the Federal
Register this week. They represent devastating changes to the
Endangered Species Act — ones many experts predict will severely undermine
protections and push numerous species toward, or even into, extinction — at a
time when the threats to biodiversity continue to
increase at a seemingly exponential rate.
To date the Endangered
Species Act, one of the world’s most effective environmental laws, has managed
to preserve an estimated 99 percent of listed species, including the Florida
manatee, bald eagle, American alligator and many others.
But in the process it’s also earned the ire of a wide range of corporate interests, who have occasionally been blocked from developing profitable projects that would have harmed or wiped out threatened species.
Under the Trump administration and Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, a former fossil-fuel industry lobbyist, those corporate interests have now found themselves gleefully back in the driver’s seat. As a result, our nation’s imperiled wildlife may soon be roadkill.
But in the process it’s also earned the ire of a wide range of corporate interests, who have occasionally been blocked from developing profitable projects that would have harmed or wiped out threatened species.
Under the Trump administration and Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, a former fossil-fuel industry lobbyist, those corporate interests have now found themselves gleefully back in the driver’s seat. As a result, our nation’s imperiled wildlife may soon be roadkill.
John R.
Platt is the editor of The Revelator. An
award-winning environmental journalist, his work has appeared in Scientific
American,Audubon, Motherboard, and numerous other
magazines and publications. His “Extinction Countdown” column has run
continuously since 2004 and has covered news and science related to more than
1,000 endangered species. He is a member of the Society of Environmental
Journalists and the National Association of Science Writers. John lives on the
outskirts of Portland, Ore., where he finds himself surrounded by animals and cartoonists. http://twitter.com/johnrplatt