Trump Guts Endangered Species Act, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That A Law Credited With Saving 99 Percent Of Listed Species Was Working

WASHINGTON. The Trump administration on Monday finalized sweeping changes to the way it enforces the Endangered Species Act, resolving a long-standing concern that a 1973 law credited with rescuing the bald eagle, the grizzly bear, and the American alligator from oblivion was continuing to do so.

The revisions, issued jointly by the Interior Department and the Commerce Department, end the decades-old practice of automatically extending the law's full protections to species newly listed as threatened, and for the first time permit federal officials to disclose the economic cost of keeping a species alive. Where regulators were once instructed to make listing decisions "solely" on the basis of the best available science, they may now weigh that science against the price of compliance, a reform supporters described as bringing badly needed balance to the question of whether an animal should be permitted to exist.

Administration officials emphasized that the changes would streamline the path to development on land previously rendered inconvenient by the presence of living things. "For too long, a single beetle could hold up an entire project," said one source within the administration, noting that the updated rules also raise the bar for designating "critical habitat" and narrow the window of the "foreseeable future" that regulators are required to consider, a provision widely understood to remove climate change from the list of threats a species is allowed to face.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has credited the Endangered Species Act with preventing the extinction of roughly 99 percent of the species placed under its protection, a track record the administration moved decisively to address. Conservation groups and a coalition of state attorneys general announced lawsuits within hours, arguing that the rules weaken the nation's most successful environmental statute at the precise moment scientists warn that one million species worldwide face extinction. The President, who has long maintained that wind turbines pose a greater danger to birds than the oil industry, did not comment on the rule directly.

The overhaul was overseen by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for oil and gas interests, who assured the public that the best way to honor the Endangered Species Act was to ensure it remained effective, a goal the new rules pursue chiefly by making it considerably harder to use.

At press time, the Interior Department confirmed that any species dissatisfied with the new framework remained free to recover its population, secure its own habitat, and petition for removal from the list through the normal channels.