Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown and top lawyers from 18 other states joined together Monday opposing proposed changes to federal law protecting endangered species.
In a 65-page letter sent to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the attorneys general urged the administration to abandon four initiatives first enacted in 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term and later reversed last year. They argued that reinstating the measures would weaken protections under the Endangered Species Act.
“These changes would put endangered wildlife and critical habitats at greater risk,” Brown wrote Tuesday on social media. “My office is standing up for science-based protections and the laws that safeguard our environment for future generations.”
The letter contends that, taken together, the proposals would “undermine key regulations” established by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, a Nixon-era law credited with preventing the extinction of species such as bald eagles, grizzly bears and gray wolves.
When announcing the proposals last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said the revived rules would advance the president’s mission “to strengthen American energy independence” and ensure the government’s actions “align with the best reading of the law.”
FWS Director Brian Nesvik said at the time that the changes reaffirm the department’s “commitment to science-based conservation” that works with Trump’s priorities.
“By restoring clarity and predictability, we are giving the regulated community confidence while keeping our focus on recovery outcomes, not paperwork,” he said.
Representatives for the U.S. Department of the Interior, which includes the FWS, and the U.S. Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
One of the proposed changes concerns interagency cooperation, while two of the others would pave the way for the government to consider a property’s economic impacts when designating critical areas and habitats.
The Interior Department wrote in its news release that it was seeking to reinstate “flexibility to determine when designating critical habitat is not prudent,” while theattorneys general said FWS was trying to work around prohibitions on considering financial factors with critical habitats.
The fourth proposal would eliminate the “blanket rule,” granting the same protections to threatened species as endangered species. Instead, the FWS would evaluate and require tailored, species-specific rules.
Federal officials last month said the change would ensure protections “are necessary and advisable … without imposing unnecessary restrictions on others.”
Conversely, the attorneys general on Monday wrote that the case-by-case proposal does not reflect “reasoned decision-making” and fails to adequately consider its consequences for conservation. [sic]
On Wednesday, the FWS’ list of threatened and endangered species was not available to review.
However, a Nov. 8 list accessed through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine features more than 300 species of “threatened” mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and insects, among other organisms. Those listed last month included lions, leopards, humpback whales, polar bears, grizzly bears and rainbow trout.
In a news release Tuesday, Brown said, if adopted, “The Trump administration’s rules would dramatically weaken federal ESA protections, enforcement, and processes, putting imperiled species and their habitats at an even greater risk of extinction.”
The other attorneys general who signed Monday’s letter hail from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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