Judge OKs suit by California, other states over lessened protections for endangered species
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
California and 16 other states can sue the Trump administration for rolling back enforcement of the Endangered Species Act by allowing consideration of economic impacts, disregarding climate change and allegedly weakening protections for many imperiled creatures, a federal judge ruled Monday.
In denying administration officials’ request to dismiss the suit, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of Oakland said the states had shown they could suffer biological and economic harm if the law were weakened.
The Endangered Species Act, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1973, protects the existence and habitat of more than 1,600 plants and animals threatened with extinction. More than 300 of the species live in California’s lands and waters, including bighorn sheep, gray wolves, humpback whales and bald eagles.
The rules announced in August by President Trump’s Interior Department allow the government to consider economic impacts to landowners when deciding whether to protect a species and its habitat. The rules also make it easier to remove a species from the protected list and limit an agency’s assessment of likely threats to a species in the “foreseeable future” — barring any consideration of global warming and its impact on a species’ habitat.
Read more: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Judge-OKs-suit-by-California-other-states-over-15279352.php
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