It appears the Endangered Species Act is being re-worked in an attempt to ease restrictions on development. Interior Secretary Doug Burgam ended automatic protections for imperiled species–both plants and animals, opting for individualized protection plans before they’re added to the Endangered Species List.
Immediately, conservation groups expressed concerns, saying the process of developing those plans is lengthy and the delay could actually render a species extinct before it’s added to the list.
The Interior Secretary says the Endangered Species Act has been used for too long–in his words, “to stop almost any new project in America, driving up costs for families, weakening our competitiveness and undermining our national security.” He says he prefers seeing species recovering rather than adding more species to the list.
Here’s another change: before a species is added to the list, there must be an analysis of the economic impacts of the species listing. They tried this during the first Trump Administration, but it was reversed during the Biden Administration.
Last week, while in Montana, Burgum announced a plan to turn over the management of grizzly bears to the states where there’s been success in saving them. That would include Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
