The White House has teed up a potentially far-reaching round of Endangered Species Act rule changes, approving Thursday its third proposal dealing with the law since late September.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs told the Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries they can proceed with formally proposing rule changes that would govern the listing of species as threatened or endangered and the designation of critical habitat.
The Trump administration’s ESA listing and critical habitat rule proposals were the third and final set of regulatory proposals submitted to the White House’s regulatory gatekeepers in June, according to the OIRA regulatory dashboard.
Earlier this week, OIRA completed its review of proposed changes in the ESA’s “interagency cooperation” procedures. Potentially, they could include curtailing the power of federal agencies to compel compensatory mitigation for projects with ESA impacts.
