Trump Administration Overhauls Protections for Endangered Species

The Departments of the Interior and Commerce have unveiled significant changes to the regulations that implement the Endangered Species Act (ESA), altering how the law will be enforced in the future. The revisions will make it easier for regulators to delist species from the endangered species list and remove automatic protections for threatened species. “The revisions finalized with this rulemaking fit squarely within the President’s mandate of easing the regulatory burden on the American public, without sacrificing our species’ protection and recovery goals,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “These changes were subject to a robust, transparent public process, during which we received significant public input that helped us finalize these rules.” ESA was enacted in 1973 with the goal of preventing plants and animals from becoming extinct. The law is credited with successfully saving the gray whale, the grizzly bear, and the bald eagle. The Trump Administration first proposed in July 2018 changes to the enforcement of the ESA that would make it harder to provide protections for certain species. The rule changes were finalized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on August 12, 2019. The new regulations apply to sections of the ESA that deal with adding or removing species from the protected list and designating critical habitats. The new rules tighten the definition of R...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news