New ESA Regulations Fall Short

The US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service have released new Endangered Species Act regulations that reinstate some critical protections for imperiled species and their habitats, yet fail to reverse many of the dangerous rollbacks implemented by the previous administration. 

The new regulations confirm that economic factors should not be considered in listing decisions and restore broad automatic protections for threatened species as they wait for the USFWS to promulgate protections tailored to the species. Unfortunately, the rules still allow for piecemeal destruction of essential habitat, do not ensure adequate consideration of the full scope of a project’s consequences, permit offsite mitigation to compensate for onsite harm to species, and do not fully restore important expert consultation requirements. These deficits leave species vulnerable to ever-increasing threats, particularly from habitat loss exacerbated by climate change.

Program Terms: Terrestrial Wildlife

AWI Quarterly Terms: Government/Legal, Quick Read