EXCLUSIVE: The Interior and Commerce Departments are scrapping a sweeping Endangered Species Act (ESA) rule that officials say past administrations "weaponized" to block energy production, logging, infrastructure projects and private citizens' land use.Officials pointed to several ESA-listed species they say triggered undue or burdensome restrictions by treating habitat modification as potential "harm" to protected species, purportedly expanding the ESA's "harm" provision."For years, federal agencies abused the ESA to obstruct lawful land use and burden American families and businesses," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox News Digital."That approach turned routine activity into a regulatory trap, drove up costs that impacted people’s lives, and expanded federal authority beyond what Congress intended."BIDEN-ERA ENVIRO RULE ACCUSED OF STRANGLING TRUCKERS, SQUEEZING AMERICANS LANDS ON TRUMP CHOPPING BLOCKA male lesser prairie chicken displays on an Edwards County, Kansas lek April 18, 2014.For centuries, they've gathered daily in the same places for up to three months hoping to impress a female.
The federal government designates the lesser prairie-chicken as threatened, prompting praise from environmentalists and threats of defiance from lawmakers, land owners and businesses in the bird's five-state habitat.(Michael Pearce/Wichita Eagle/MCT) (Michael Pearce/Wichita Eagle/MCT via Getty Images)On Friday, the Interior and Commerce Departments announced they are rescinding the 'outdated' regulatory definition of 'harm' and returning the Endangered Species Act's interpretation to its original intent to end years of federal overreach.The administration is relying in part on the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Loper Bright v.
Raimondo, which overturned "Chevron deference" and held that courts must use independent judgment when interpreting federal statutes rather than deferring to an agency’s preferred reading of ambiguous law.The rule change therefore aims to ...