President Donald Trump's administration has finalized a regulation that would curtail protections that apply to the habitat of species at risk of going extinct, marking a major rollback to restrictions in the Endangered Species Act.
The final rule, announced on Friday, would rescind a regulatory definition from 1981 that prohibited actions that would significantly harm the habitat of protected species. The administration said that definition, which has protected the land and water of at-risk species for decades, was an "unlawful intrusion that interfered with private property rights" and would be rescinded in its entirety.
"This action restores common sense, respects private property, provides much-needed certainty for landowners and follows the statute Congress actually passed," US interior secretary Doug Burgum said.
The US Interior Department, which has yet to release the text of the rule, said the change would reduce "unnecessary" permitting and "eliminate confusion" for landowners, energy companies, farmers and local governments. Last year, Interior said its intended revision would only apply on a prospective basis and not apply to permits that have already been issued.
Environmentalists are preparing litigation challenging the rollback, which they say would make it far more likely for species to go extinct by eliminating protections of the habitat where they live. The administration's revised interpretation of the law would still prohibit directly injuring or killing wildlife, such as poaching, but would end protections that would otherwise limit energy production or other development on the remaining habitat of an at-risk species.
"Habitat destruction is the number one threat to endangered species and Trump's decision to toss out the definition of harm is a death knell for America's wildlife," Center for Biological Diversity senior campaigner Tara Zuardo said.
The US Supreme Court in 1995 sided with federal regulators that had said a prohibition against "harm" in the Endangered Species Act also extended to a species' habitat. But the Trump administration last year, in its proposed rule, said it no longer believes that is the best meaning of the law, prompting its decision to repeal that definition.
In March, the administration exempted all offshore oil and gas operations in the US Gulf of Mexico from compliance with the Endangered Species Act by citing national security concerns. Last month, a federal judge in Maryland cited that action to throw out a lawsuit from environmentalists that said Trump-era protections for whales and other at-risk species in the Gulf were insufficient.
