Sixteen Democratic state attorneys general Monday denounced a Trump administration proposal to narrow the definition of what it means to “harm” an imperiled plant or animal under the Endangered Species Act.
In a detailed, 33-page letter organized by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the state officials said the proposal would be poisonous to ESA-protected species and they all but promised litigation will follow if the Fish and Wildlife Service proceeds.
“California is home to more than 300 species listed as threatened or endangered under the federal ESA, whose survival depends on the continued protection provided by the ESA,” Bonta said in a statement. “Not only would the proposed rule put our ecosystems in critical danger, but the Trump Administration would be making this change illegally.”
The FWS proposal would narrow the ESA’s definition of “harm” so that it excludes actions that affect habitat and extends only to the species in question.
