Trump Administration Guts Endangered Species Act
On Monday, August 12th, the Trump Administration announced changes to US Endangered Species Act, worse than those proposed in July 2018. In 2018, 800,000 people objected in public comments to the original proposed rules.
Of course, this is now typical of the Administration that ignores science and public concerns for the environment in favor of lobbyists for industry, one of whom is now head of the Department of Interior – David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for oil and gas interests – which oversees the ESA, wildlife and public lands.
These regulations will bias listing decisions with unreliable economic analyses, make it more difficult to protect species impacted by climate change, obstruct our ability to list new species, make it easier to remove listed species, handicap the process to designate and protect critical habitat, reduce protections for threatened species, decrease voluntary conservation incentives, and weaken the consultation process.
Industry groups and many Republicans have tried repeatedly to seriously weaken the Endangered Species Act, only to fail due to massive public support for the Act. Despite the control held by Republicans in Congress for the first two years of the Trump Administration, no ESA legislation was able to pass. (It should be noted that there are many Republicans who support the ESA and wildlife protection.)
Thus, the Trump Administration has taken action by administrative fiat, weakening the implementation rules of the ESA so that the Act becomes a mockery.
A major rule change now allows the Administration to consider economic analyses of the “cost” of listing a species to be included, regardless of the science of the species’ status. Of course, the protection of an endangered species is a venture that cannot be quantified in dollars – a species has intrinsic value and is priceless because its genetic makeup cannot be retrieved once extinct. Virtually any industrial project, pollution, logging, mining, or building can be shown to be “economically” more important than a species.
Critical habitat will only be jeopardized by such projects if the ENTIRE habitat of a species is threatened, a specious rule as virtually no projects ever impact an entire habitat, only gradually eat away at such habitat with cumulative effects.
Another Trumpian bugaboo, climate change, can no longer be used to address the causes of endangerment. Many species are already suffering from the effects of climate change, such as melting Arctic ice that polar bears depend upon for denning during the spring.
“Over all, the revised rules appear very likely to clear the way for new mining, oil and gas drilling, and development in areas where protected species live,” wrote Lisa Friedman in the New York Times.
The Endangered Species Act is one of the most powerful environmental protection laws, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1973. A number of species have been protected by the Act and have recovered, including the bald eagle, the grizzly bear, and the gray whale. Many marine mammal species, such as the North Atlantic right whale and the humpback whale, are still endangered and protected under the ESA.
Watch a North Atlantic endangered right whale and her calf swim with a pod of dolphins:
The United Nations, in an extensive recent report, warned that globally more than 1 million species of wildlife are likely to go extinct. The new ESA regulations will surely help speed extinction for many US species.
It is likely that Democrats in the House of Representatives and environmental organizations will file lawsuits to block the implementation of the new rules. Several state Attorneys General have also threatened legal action.
Please support the work of the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute to protect endangered species of whales and dolphins with a tax-deductible gift. Your support is critical to our success, and we thank you for your generosity.
