Biden Administration Restores Wildlife Protections
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to reinstate rules protecting endangered plants and animals, action that would reverse changes made during the Trump Administration that weakened the Endangered Species Act.
A decades-old regulation that mandates blanket protections for species newly classified as threatened was dropped in 2019. That change to the application of the species law was encouraged by industry, even as extinctions accelerate globally due to habitat loss and other pressures.
The rollback would also allow officials to decide if animals and plants need protection without considering economic impacts. And the rules make it easier to designate areas as critical for a species’ survival, even if it is no longer found in those locations.
Proposal of the rules last year faced strong pushback from Republican lawmakers, who said President Joe Biden's Democratic administration has hampered oil, gas and coal development, and favors conservation over development.
Industry groups have long viewed the 1973 Endangered Species Act as an impediment. Under Trump, they successfully lobbied to weaken the law’s regulations as part of a broad dismantling of environmental safeguards. Trump officials rolled back endangered species rules and protections for the northern spotted owl, gray wolves and other species.
