US scraps automatic protections for threatened species as critics warn of extinction risk

Billings: The US Interior Department on Friday cancelled a rule meant to protect plants and animals that are determined to be threatened with extinction, the latest step by President Donald Trump's administration to dismantle key provisions of the landmark Endangered Species Act at the behest of industry.

Instead of receiving automatic protections, imperiled species will need individualised protection plans once they are added to the threatened species list. That is a potentially lengthy process in which companies could seek exemptions for oil and gas drilling, mining and other development where those species live.

Opponents said it would make it harder to save wildlife that is awaiting federal protections and in danger of disappearing, such as monarch butterflies and alligator snapping turtles.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement that the Endangered Species Act had been used for too long "to stop almost any new project in America, driving up costs for families, weakening our competitiveness, and undermining our national security."

"Success should be measured by species recovery and delisting, not by adding more species to the list," Burgum added.

A second change finalised Friday requires officials to analyse economic impacts when deciding whether habitat is critical to a species' survival. Critics say it gives corporations an opportunity to put their thumb on the scale so that officials will allow development in those areas.

"If you're exempting certain industries that cause habitat destruction, in many instances you'll be exempting the main threat to those species," said Noah Greenwald with the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity.

Officials made similar changes during Trump's first term but they were reversed under former Democratic President Joe Biden.

The rules that gave what some consider "blanket protections" to threatened species were first adopted for wildlife in 1975 and for plants in 1977.

There have been no species added to the endangered or threatened lists in Trump's second term. By comparison, more than 20 species were added in Trump's first term, and about 60 during Biden's presidency.

About 30 species are currently proposed to be listed as threatened. Besides monarchs and alligator snapping turtles, they include California spotted owls and various snakes, fish, clams and insects.

Changes to government policies for endangered plants and wildlife have come faster and extended further in Trump's second term than in his first.

The administration in March exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said environmentalists' lawsuits threatened to hobble domestic energy supplies as the US wages war against Iran.

Last week, Interior officials sharply narrowed the definition of what constitutes "harm" to a species. The change would allow development on critical wildlife habitat so long as the animals themselves are not immediately killed or injured.

This week officials sharply reduced the amount of critical habitat in the US Rocky Mountains designated for Canada lynx, forest dwelling wildcats that are threatened by climate change and other pressures.

Also this week, Burgum said in a visit to Montana that the US Fish and Wildlife Service would turn over more management authority for grizzly bears to states where the bruins live. That has been a longstanding priority for the Republican governors of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

The Endangered Species Act is credited with bringing back iconic animals including the bald eagle and American alligator from the brink of extinction.

Burgum noted Friday that 97 per cent of the species that have been given protections still have them. That is a frustration for Republican lawmakers who say species should be taken off the endangered and threatened lists more quickly once they have recovered.

AP