Texas is pushing to remove federal protections from seven freshwater mussel species whose recovery the Fish and Wildlife Service estimates could cost tens of millions of dollars over many years.
Reinforcing a challenge first brought against the Biden administration, the Texas attorney general’s office on Friday fleshed out its case for dropping the seven mussels from the list of those covered under the Endangered Species Act.
“The Service did not adequately consider Texas’s efforts to conserve the Central Texas Mussels,” a legal brief signed by Texas Assistant Attorney General Wesley Williams stated, adding that “the ESA is clear that the Service must consider existing approaches to conservation when deciding whether to list species as either endangered or threatened.”
The state’s brief was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, in support of a motion for summary judgment. The Justice Department has not yet countered with its own motion, and some environmentalists fear that the Trump team could back down in the face of a conservative state’s challenge.
