{"id":317627,"date":"2024-04-14T10:09:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=317627"},"modified":"2024-04-14T10:09:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:09:32","slug":"biden-administration-tightens-endangered-species-regs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=317627","title":{"rendered":"Biden Administration tightens endangered species regs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Landowners harboring threatened or endangered species on their property will soon be facing stricter scrutiny and the possibility of tougher land-use restrictions under new Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations released by the Biden administration April 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s political appointees at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) rewrote Trump-era rules finalized in 2019, which emphasized species recovery over federal micromanagement of private property. The new rules will take effect on May 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key element of the Trump-era policy was its handling of areas unoccupied by a species at risk. Under the Trump rule, for an unoccupied area to be considered essential to a specie\u2019s recovery, USFWS had to \u201cdetermine that there was a reasonable certainty both that the area will contribute to the conservation of the species and that the area contains one or more of those physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the species.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn other words,\u201d the Public Lands Council points out, \u201cUSFWS could not designate critical habitat in an unoccupied area that could not in the future actually support the life of a species. Now, the agency may designate critical habitat in any occupied area that it believes is \u2018essential for the conservation of the species.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This change greatly expands the amount of land that can be brought under USFWS control, enabling \u201ccritical habitat\u201d to be designated anywhere USFWS determines a species is at risk, including from such purely hypothetical factors as climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consideration of Economic Impact<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another radical change coming to ESA enforcement concerns the economic impact of a listing. Previously, regulations under the ESA did not explicitly prohibit federal officials from considering the economic impact of listing or habitat decisions. Such determinations were to be based on \u201cthe best available scientific and commercial information.\u201d No more. The Biden regulations now explicitly state that determination on listing status and habitat designations must be made \u201cwithout reference to economic or other impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, USFWS officials are now free to make such designations without any consideration of how they will affect the livelihoods of rural communities located near a \u201ccritical habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blurring the Difference Between Threatened and Endangered Species<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it was enacted in 1973, the ESA specified that species designated as threatened were to be treated differently than those at higher risk or endangered. Over the decades, however, the difference gradually disappeared, meaning the land-use restrictions imposed on property owners harboring a named species \u2013 whether threatened or endangered \u2014 were about the same. The 2019 Trump reforms that section of the statute to its original intent. This is crucial when it comes to an incidental take of a species because the blurring of distinctions raises landowners\u2019 potential liability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Biden revisions do not preclude USFWS from issuing species-specific rules to exempt certain practices from the prohibition of take, the new language will enable federal officials to largely ignore the statutory difference between threatened and endangered. In effect, the Biden administration has reimposed the \u201cblanket\u201d approach to species protection, putting the same prohibitions in place whether the plant or animal is threatened or endangered. This blurring of an important distinction constitutes a major gain for an administrative state eager to throw its weight around whenever the opportunity presents itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new rules will provide a boost to the White House\u2019s \u201c30\u00d730\u201d plan, under which \u201cat least\u201d 30 percent of the nation\u2019s land and water are to be \u201cprotected\u201d by 2030. Increasing the amount of land set aside indefinitely for the recovery of a species is one of the ways the administration can achieve its 30-percent goal by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Court Challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a similar vein, the Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced how it intends to comply \u2013 or not comply \u2013 with the Supreme Court\u2019s May 2023\u00a0Sackett v. EPA<\/em>\u00a0ruling, which limited EPA\u2019s power to regulate certain bodies of water, including wetlands, under the Clean Water Act. EPA\u2019s effort to circumvent the\u00a0Sackett<\/em>\u00a0decision is being challenged in court, and the administration\u2019s new ESA rules may soon be facing a similar fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Landowners harboring threatened or endangered species on their property will soon be facing stricter scrutiny and the possibility of tougher land-use restrictions under new Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations released by the Biden administration April 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":317631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691828133,691822681,691818864,691828132],"class_list":["post-317627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-biden-environmental-protection-agency-epa","tag-endangered-species-act-esa","tag-the-biden-administration","tag-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service-usfws","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/2ecf0ce2f-c452-453d-bccf-221bba20d74c.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1kD1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":292090,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292090","url_meta":{"origin":317627,"position":0},"title":"Biden 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under the Endangered Species\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Alaska\"","block_context":{"text":"Alaska","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=alaska"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0Bearded-seal.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0Bearded-seal.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0Bearded-seal.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0Bearded-seal.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0Bearded-seal.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 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