Trump administration proposes ending most protections for 100 threatened species

The U.S. Department of the Interior sent a proposed rule to the White House this week that effectively would rescind most protections for 100 species designated as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The rule targets species in California, Hawaii, and scores more fish, birds and mammals around the country. They include southern sea otters, northern spotted owls, piping plovers, red knots, Yosemite toads, delta smelt, Santa Catalina Island foxes and gopher tortoises.

The proposal would rescind a 40-year-old rule protecting wildlife in the United States.

In 1975, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service enacted a rule granting threatened species the same level of protection as endangered species. And only if the service determined that fewer protections were warranted could protections be relaxed.

“The Trump administration just issued a death sentence to more than 100 threatened species,” Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “If enacted, this rule could be the end for iconic wildlife like the northern spotted owl and southern sea otter. Trump is erasing America’s natural heritage to make his friends richer and allow polluters to ravage our environment. It’s disgraceful.”

In 2016, the right-wing advocacy group Pacific Legal Foundation petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to rescind the 1975 protective regulation.

That petition was authored by Damien Schiff, later nominated by President Donald Trump to be a federal judge.

“If these critical protections for threatened species are eliminated, Trump will go down in history as the extinction president,” Greenwald said. “This administration’s assault on critical safeguards for our air, water and wildlife is not supported by the American public. It threatens to undo decades of progress towards improving the health of the environment for people and wildlife alike.”

Trump names endangered species foe to top Fish and Wildlife post

The Trump administration has named Susan Combs — a foe of endangered species and a climate change denier — as acting assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. She oversees the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the endangered species it protects.

As a Texas state comptroller, Combs wrested control of the state's endangered species program from the Department of Parks and Wildlife to her office, which managed state fiscal and tax matters, not biology. She used her authority to oppose any Endangered Species Act protections, often teaming with the oil and gas industry, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

Combs was nominated in 2017 to be the U.S. Department of the Interior’s assistant secretary for policy, management and budget, where she would have controlled the purse strings over the entire department, including the Fish and Wildlife Service. The full Senate did not take up her nomination and sent it back to the White House at the end of 2017.

In 2018, Combs was renominated and more than 70 conservation organizations sent a letter to the Senate opposing her nomination.

She is the third political appointee named as “acting” assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks since Trump took office. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke appointed Aurelia Skipwith, a former Monsanto employee, to the role in April 2017. In January, Zinke appointed Jason Larrabee, the former chief of staff for Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., to the position.

The Federal Vacancies Reform Act limits which political appointees can serve in an acting capacity in particular Senate-confirmed offices to a period of up to 210 days, and only for a limited time after a new president is sworn in. Once 300 days or more have passed since a position becomes vacant, the ability to appoint acting officials is severely limited. To date, Trump has not named a person for the Senate to confirm in the assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks job.