Fifty years ago, the Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon with the intention of establishing a clear process for recovering species on the verge of extinction. In the years that have passed since its enactment, this well-intended law has taken on a life of its own and has dramatically shifted from its original purpose to the point where it does far more harm than good.
Since its passage, the ESA has become a weapon wielded by the Left to appease environmental activists that has punished landowners and once-thriving communities with virtually no improvement to the species it aims to recover. Today, there are roughly 1,667 threatened or endangered species protected under the ESA. Of those 1,667 species, only 62 are “recovered” species. To add insult to injury, the ESA’s poor recovery rates are compounded by the fact that for the majority of recovered species, roughly 60% of downlisted species appear to owe their improvement to data error, not the protections afforded to them by the ESA.
In 2019, the Trump administration offered meaningful reforms regarding the delisting of species and designation of critical habitats that struck a balance of protecting endangered species without hogtying landowners. This welcomed change in policy eliminated constraints that previously prevented agencies from researching and sharing the economic impacts of listing determinations under the ESA. Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s rigid take on the ESA removed Trump-era clarity by inflating unelected Washington bureaucrats’ power and strangling landowners and communities across the country with onerous red tape.
