US wildlife agency seeks to carve out areas from protections
Source: Associated Press
MATTHEW BROWN
, Associated Press
Sep. 4, 2020
Updated: Sep. 4, 2020 5:01 p.m.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Trump administration proposal released Friday would allow the government to deny habitat protections for endangered animals and plants in areas that would see greater economic benefits from being developed — a change critics said could open lands to more energy development and other activities.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials described the proposal as giving more deference to local governments when they want to build things like schools and hospitals.
But the proposal indicates that exemptions from habitat protections would be considered for a much broader array of developments, including at the request of private companies that lease federal lands or have permits to use them. Government-issued leases and permits can allow energy development, grazing, recreation, logging and other commercial uses of public lands.
It’s the latest move by the Trump administration in a years-long effort to repeal regulations across government that has broadly changed how the Endangered Species Act gets used. Other steps under Trump to scale back species rules included lifting blanket protections for animals newly listed as threatened, setting cost estimates for saving species and a pending proposal to restrict what areas fit under the definition of “habitat".
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Wildlife-agency-seeks-to-carve-out-areas-from-15543447.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
Misses the whole point of why the EPA was established.
Public Lands. These areas belong to all people who respect the land--not trump or his goddamn cronies. I have a better idea--let's allow cattle grazing on all trump's golf courses.
