By Jonathan Stempel
Sept 9 (Reuters) – U.S. states filed two lawsuits on Wednesday accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of illegally weakening the federal Endangered Species Act, a landmark law that has shielded the bald eagle and other wildlife from dangers posed by development.
In one lawsuit, states challenged a rule that narrowed the law’s definition of harm, which had long included encroachments on habitats where endangered animals live. The new rule allows oil drilling, mining and other activities in those habitats so long as those activities do not directly kill or injure the animals.
The other lawsuit challenges two rules. One rule eliminates broad protections for newly threatened species unless the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service creates species-specific protections. The second rule requires the government to consider objections by developers, fossil fuel companies and other businesses before declaring areas as “critical habitats.”
Democratic attorneys general of 20 states and the District of Columbia joined one or both cases. The lawsuits target actions by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Democratic-led states have filed dozens of lawsuits challenging sweeping policy changes during the second White House term of Trump, a Republican.
The Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the Department of the Interior, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The fisheries service, part of the Department of Commerce, said it does not discuss pending litigation.
ADMINISTRATION’S APPROACH ‘EXPLOITATION,’ STATE AG SAYS
Enacted by Congress in 1973, the Endangered Species Act has been credited with saving animals including the California condor, grizzly bear and humpback whale from possible extinction.
“The Trump administration is trying to undermine the law, the will of Congress and the will of the people who overwhelmingly support protections for endangered species,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said at a press conference. “Instead of stewardship, this administration’s approach to our land, to our water is one of exploitation.”
Weakening the law aligns with Trump’s goal to reduce regulations that he says constrain American businesses.
These include the scaling back of a variety of environmental initiatives and standards, including by reducing government support for clean energy and repealing an Obama administration-era scientific finding that climate change threatens public health.
Many wildlife advocates consider habitat loss the biggest cause of animal extinction.
“We owe future generations a world where bald eagles soar, sea turtles swim and all wildlife thrives,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
INTERIOR SECRETARY HAS SAID LAW WAS ‘WEAPONIZED’
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has said the Endangered Species Act has been “weaponized” to stop a myriad of projects, weakening competitiveness, undermining national security, and hurting Americans’ pocketbooks.
He has said the new rules more closely align the law with its original intent.
The changes follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2024 to overrule a 40-year-old precedent that required courts to defer to federal agencies’ reasonable interpretations of laws they administer.
Wednesday’s lawsuits were led by Washington State, California, Maryland and Massachusetts. Other plaintiffs include New York, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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