USA wants to repeal Trump rules on species protection

The administration of President Joe Biden announced on 26 October 2021 that it intends to repeal two environmental regulations introduced under former President Donald Trump.

Industry favoured over environment

The proposal to have the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service rescind the two rules from the Trump era is part of a broad effort by the Biden administration to roll back regulationsthat, in the view of Democrats and advocates for wildlife favoured industry over the environment.

Designating areas and waterways as critical to the survival of endangered species can restrict mining, oil drilling, and other development. This has made such designations a flashpoint for conflicts between environmental and economic interests.

Industrial corporations and Republicans in Congress have long viewed the Endangered Species Act as an obstacle to economic development.Under Trump, they successfully pushed to weaken the act's regulations through amendments that gave greater weight to economic development and other interests.

Biden administration corrects course

Biden administration officials said that a review of the Trump guidelines had found them to be “problematic” because they restricted the government's ability to advance conservation by protecting areas where plants and animals are found.

Shannon Estenoz, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, said the proposal would bring the Endangered Species Act “in line with its original intent and purpose — protecting and restoring America's biological heritage for future generations.»

Republican lawmakers pushed back against the decision. Bruce Westerman described it as a “reckless» Departure from the necessary reforms of the Endangered Species Act.

Critical Habitat and Climate Change

One of the rules allows the government to deny habitat protections for endangered animals and plants in areas that could benefit economically from development. The other rule contains a definition of the term “habitat” that critics say excludes areas that species will need to use in the future as climate change alters ecosystems.

«You really cannot save endangered species without protecting the places where they live or need to live”, said Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Among the animals potentially affected by the changes are the endangered Lesser Prairie Chicken and the rare dunes sagebrush lizard, which lives in the oil fields of West Texas and eastern New Mexico.