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On Friday, the Trump administration introduced yet another rollback of protections for endangered species. The change would allow the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to give more weight to the economic impacts of designating critical habitat for species, further tilting precedence towards industry. While FWS already considers economic impacts, the proposed rule would allow industry to submit their own economic impact assessments.
This is not the first time that the Trump administration has proposed to weaken the Endangered Species Act. Last year, a major rollback allowed agencies to start including the economic impact of listing a species. In July, FWS proposed a rule that excludes habitat that currently doesn't hold an endangered species from being included in its listing, ignoring impending range shifts due to climate change. A group of 100 lawmakers, headed by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva, said in a letter, "We are alarmed by this proposed rule, especially in the context of the three regulations finalized last year that weakened ESA implementation. This onslaught of environmental rollbacks that threaten the survival of our nation’s wildlife must stop."
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Conservation and environmental protection can play a critical role in our economic recovery. Conservation is a job creator, plain and simple, and it’s one of the best ways we can put people back to work. It’s a win-win.”
