The Interior Department rolled out three new proposed rules on Thursday to “tweak” how the federal government manages endangered species, which is expected to receive enormous pushback but also praise.
“Here’s my expectation for pretty much all three rules,” said Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt on a call with reporters. “I think we’ll hear people say it’s great, we’ll have people say it’s crazy, and we’ll have everything in between.”
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Nevertheless, he is “hopeful” that people that have views “take the time to write” the agency “serious” and “thoughtful” responses to what is being proposed, Bernhardt said. He said he will read over them “laboriously,” and anticipates responses from the “entire spectrum of opinion.”
Bernhardt hopes “to be more informed by it,” he said. “That’s the process.”
“The big picture of this rule is that, together, these rules will be very protective and enhance the conservation of the species,” said Bernhardt.
Democrats and conservation groups began criticizing the proposals soon after the call.
“The public doesn’t demand this; this is part of the endless special favors the White House and Department of the Interior are willing to do for their industry friends. It’s reprehensible and it needs to be opposed and reversed,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.
“The signal being sent by the Trump administration, here and everywhere, is clear: protecting America’s wildlife and wild lands is simply not on their agenda,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife.
The three proposed rules issued Thursday examine a number of issues that Interior has received comments about to change or remove from prior interpretations of the 1973 Endangered Species Act that go back 30 years.
Two of the rules make minor, but substantive changes to how Interior and the Commerce Departments deal jointly with species protections.
The first proposal deals with section 4 of the law, which governs when and how a species is listed as endangered or threatened, as well as the process for designating habitat for additional protections, said Bernhardt.
“We want to ensure that listing factors and the de-listing factors [taking species off the list] are the same legal standard,” he said. “We propose to clarify instances where it may not necessarily be prudent to designate critical habitat and we intend to incorporate a few terms to clarity in the regs,” such as the term “foreseeable future,” that aren’t well defined under current rules.
It would also seek to ensure critical habitat begins where the species presently resides before including another “unoccupied habitat,” he said.
The second rule deals with section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, which is “where the rubber meets the road,” Bernhardt said. Section 7 governs how other agencies coordinate their activities with Interior to ensure species are not disturbed in implementing other unrelated federal regulations.
The second rule proposes “alternative consultation mechanisms” to speed up approvals, according to Bernhardt. It would also “simplify a few definitions that have led to difficult court decisions,” and a lack of understanding by the public and within the agency itself, he said.
Finally, Interior will be proposing a third regulation to change how it designates species by adopting the same method used by Commerce’s National Marine Fisheries Service under its separate rules for protecting ocean species.
This would mean that Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service will “rescind its blanket rule” that “automatically conveyed the same protections for threatened species as for endangered species unless otherwise specified.” The process employed by Commerce is much more tailored to the species and the level of protection, Berhardt said.
