EPA to open habitats of endangered species to logging and mining | Trump administration
The Trump administration on Friday repealed a key section of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), finalizing a new rule that would open endangered wildlife habitats to development, logging, mining and other uses.
Groundbreaking environmental law over the last 50 years has included a broader understanding of the word “harm”; This ensured the protection of not only plants and animals, but also places critical to their survival. The inclusion of habitat in the definition of “harm” was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1995, which ruled to uphold old-growth forest protections on which endangered spotted owls depend.
But despite widespread public support for a strong ESA and Hundreds of thousands of public comments submitted in opposition amendment – The Department of Home Affairs and Department of Commerce reframed the definition as “a breach of regulation that interferes with private property rights” and announced that it would be rescinded.
habitat destruction It is considered the most powerful driver of species loss. The legislation has helped protect more than 1,700 species and their habitats. 99% prevention The most famous among those on the brink of extinction is the bald eagle. Experts fear that this move could cause major damage to species that are already on the brink.
“For the first time, a presidential administration has argued that species protected by the Endangered Species Act should not be safe from habitat changes that destroy places where they live, raise their young, or forage,” Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles said in a statement.
Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, said when the proposal was first published last year that the plan would be “a death sentence for wolverines, monarch butterflies, Florida manatees and many other animals and plants that desperately need our help.”
The erosion of regulations is emerging amid an extinction emergency as the climate crisis adds new challenges to recovery. Nearly 1 million species are at risk of extinction, including nearly 40% of amphibians and a third of reef-building corals, marine mammals and sharks, according to a 2019 assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Insects, considered the foundation of biodiversity and the foundation of most ecosystems on Earth, are rapidly declining. Approximately 80% of insect species have not yet been identified, and some are disappearing before they can be named.
Impacts on habitat can threaten a broader network of interconnected species and ecosystems. Landscape change can trigger a devastating domino effect; The loss of one species can lead to the extinction of other species that depend on it.
The U.S. public broadly supports species conservation. A 2023 survey found that 80% of registered voters Supported full funding of ESA and 73% think biodiversity is important to their daily lives.
But Trump administration officials claim the rules have been changed to better align with what they believe is the original intent of the law. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who accused federal agencies of abusing the ESA to “impede lawful land use and create burdens on American families and businesses,” said in a statement that the protections “turn routine activities into a regulatory trap.”
In the announcement, officials said “actions that directly harm or kill listed wildlife will continue to be prohibited.”
But these rescinded rules are part of a broader deregulation effort by Donald Trump, who has made it a priority to dismantle endangered species protections to increase energy extraction and industrial access even in the United States’ most sensitive and vulnerable natural areas.
In March, the president assembled his so-called “God team,” named for its ability to determine the fate of a species, to expand oil and gas industry operations in the Gulf of Mexico. At the beginning of his second term, Trump appointed top federal officials to the group to find ways to circumvent ESA rules that create “impediments to domestic energy infrastructure.”
Advocates are already preparing to challenge the new interpretation of harm.
“Let’s be clear: There is no support for the Trump Administration’s rule; no scientific support, no legal support, no public support,” Boyles said. “We will see the Trump administration in court”
