The Trump administration wants to slide some dollars and cents into Endangered Species Act deliberations. Critics fear it’s the most vulnerable species that could pay the price.
As part of a far-reaching ESA rules package announced Wednesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries have proposed removing a Biden-era regulatory statement that threatened and endangered species listing decisions are made “without reference to possible economic or other impacts of such determination.”
The proposed deletion of 11 words would leave intact the ESA’s explicit statutory declaration that listing decisions are to be made “solely on the basis of the best scientific and commercial data available.” It would, though, permit officials to have cost-benefit studies on hand for the public’s edification.
“I know it will get lots of criticism,” said Timothy Male, executive director of the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. But, Male added, “there are reasonable circumstances where the public should know about the kind of positive and negative economic effects of listing species. We shouldn’t pretend it is cost, or benefit, free.”
