{"id":449695,"date":"2026-06-11T06:32:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T13:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=449695"},"modified":"2026-06-11T06:32:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T13:32:33","slug":"two-costly-endangered-species-act-permitting-boondoggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=449695","title":{"rendered":"Two costly Endangered Species Act permitting boondoggles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

By David Wojick<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Landowners subject to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) can in principle get permits to develop their land from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Under the Paperwork Reduction Act, the FWS is supposed to estimate the average applicant\u2019s labor and expenses in getting a permit. Their estimates are listed in this government-wide database.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As explained below, the labor estimate is clearly prohibitive for most people. This is the first boondoggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost is likely also prohibitive, but a realistic estimate is missing in action. FWS needs to get honest about the huge cost of ESA development permits. Failure to provide a reasonable cost estimate is the second boondoggle. It may even be a case of administrative fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, a bit of jargon. This is called an incidental take permit. Under many other wildlife protection laws, the critter is said to be taken if it is directly impacted, such as being killed, injured, harassed, etc. ESA is far broader, so \u201ctake\u201d includes affecting the animal\u2019s habitat in ways that might be detrimental. Incidental means the take is not the point of the permitted action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 100 million acres of land and 34,000 miles of streams are presently designated as protected habitat under ESA, so the need for incidental take permits is potentially extensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each incidental take permit must include a detailed Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) which includes a lot of technical ecological analysis. Preparing the HCP is where most of the labor and cost come from.  See <\/strong><\/em><\/a>it here<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FWS provides separate official labor and cost estimates for the preparing the permit application and for doing the Habitat Conservation Plan. Let\u2019s start with the labor estimates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For preparing the application, the claimed average labor is a mere 3 hours. This is undoubtedly very low because the application requires getting copies of a lot of documents, plus understanding the regulations, etc. But this is nothing compared to doing the HCP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official FWS applicant labor estimate for preparing the Habitat Conservation Plan is a staggering 2,080 hours. That is precisely a full person-year of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accepting this huge number for the moment, it is easy to see that few landowners will have the time to apply for a permit. Big organizations with big plans might throw that much staff time at getting a permit. but, short of that, it is just too much work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is really scary is this huge number is likely to be way low. Agencies are under great pressure to lowball their labor estimates. The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) imposes a regulatory labor budget on each agency. The total allowable annual labor required under all the agency\u2019s regulations taken together is set by the Office of Management and Budget. (Disclosure: I helped design this \u201cburden budget\u201d system.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since every agency wants to bring out new regulations, they need ways to reduce the labor estimates on their existing rules. Sometimes they make meaningful changes, but often they just lie harder and lower the estimates. That the HCP estimate exactly equals 40 hours\/week times 52 weeks strongly suggests that it is not a real estimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A big flaw in the PRA is that it does not require field sampling of actual labor amounts, so bogus estimates are unconstrained. However, given the drive to minimize them, this huge 2080 hours per permit should be considered the low end of the possibilities. It might take several person-years of labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to cost, the deception gets far worse, as the HCP cost is officially estimated at ZERO. What makes this \u201cno cost\u201d estimate preposterous is that the preparation of HCPs for landowners is a recognized industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FWS permit application form tells applicants to use the agency\u2019s \u201cHabitat Conservation Planning Handbook.\u201d The full title is \u201cHabitat Conservation Planning and Incidental Take Permit Processing Handbook.\u201d It is here.<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official Handbook has an entire section titled \u201cConsultants and Contractors.\u201d Here is the very first sentence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince applicants typically do not have in-house knowledge or experience with the HCP process, they often hire environmental consultants or contractors to assist with preparing the HCP.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These HCP consultants and contractors cost money. A number of major consultancies are heavily into providing HCP services. For example, the National Habitat Conservation Plan Coalition includes these members: Environmental Science Associates, ICF, SWCA Environmental Consultants, and Zara Environmental. The Coalition promotes the development of regional-scale HCPs, where the consultant members no doubt hope to make big bucks. See https:\/\/www.nhcpcoalition.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have little information about what the HCP costs are, but one of the Coalition members has posted a fee system for extending their regional HCP to cover local property development. This is Charlotte County, Florida, which I discuss in my article \u201cEndangered Species Act regulatory overkill.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The HCP fees are by property size and range from about $2,000 for less than 0.22 acres to over two million dollars for anything over 100 acres. Few people can afford this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FWS estimates there are 46 large-scale HCPs a year, so the total annual cost could easily be many millions of dollars. Thus, their claim of zero HCP cost is incredibly deceptive. Since it violates the Paperwork Reduction Act, it looks like a clear case of administrative fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The public, landowners, and Congress need to know what Endangered Species Act development permitting actually requires in labor and cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Landowners subject to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) can in principle get permits to develop their land from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Under the Paperwork Reduction Act, the FWS is supposed to estimate the average applicant\u2019s labor and expenses in getting a permit. Their estimates are listed in this government-wide database.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":449702,"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":[691843604,691822681,691842885,691843603,691836154],"class_list":["post-449695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-endangered-species-act-regulatory-overkill","tag-endangered-species-act-esa","tag-habitat-conservation-plan-hcp-i","tag-paperwork-reduction-act-pra","tag-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service-fws","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0-ChatGPT-Two-costly-Endangered-Species-Act-permitting-boondoggles.png?fit=1536%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1SZ9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":443152,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=443152","url_meta":{"origin":449695,"position":0},"title":"Endangered Species Act regulatory overkill","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/09\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The regulatory machinery of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is incredibly overdone, often making the reasonable use of regulated land impossible. 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