(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Trump Proposes Eviscerating the Endangered Species Act [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-17
I know we are being ravaged on all sides by the terror of this regime. It’s hard to keep up with every horrific thing that’s being done. It’s hard to keep our morale up. We can only take on so many fights. I get it. In comparison to kidnapping innocent people off the streets, illegal renditioning, the threat of another pandemic, the assault on education, ad infinitum, this may seem a small unimportant thing. But we have to be able to fight on all fronts. Part of their strategy, such as it is, is to slip in the stuff they really want while clanging their cymbals to distract us. We can’t let them do it.
Trump has proposed a rule change to the Endangered Species Act. The ESA was signed into law in 1973 by Richard Nixon, and has been one of our most powerful tools ever devised for protecting biodiversity and our national landscape.
One of the most successful laws in environmental history
This rule change will insidiously make it so only direct harm to the animal would be considered a violation of the act. Harming the environment the species requires to survive, like flattening an old growth forest that the Spotted Owl lives in would not violate the act, as long as the bulldozer doesn’t specifically harm the owl itself (“hey, the tree fell and destroyed the nest, we didn’t actually crush the birds with our equipment”).
This is madness and science-free, and will ensure the extinction of hundreds or perhaps thousands of species in the U.S. It will also, of course, destroy the beautiful landscapes that we all love and enjoy. There are tens of millions of acres managed by the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Land Management. All of it will be under threat with this new rule.
A 30 day comment period has been instituted. If you want to keep other living things alive, or if you enjoy your forests and wilderness, you should comment. You can do so by going to
https://www.regulations.gov and in the Search box, enter FWS–HQ–ES–2025–0034, which is the docket number for this rulemaking. On the resulting page, in the panel on the left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, check the Proposed Rule box to locate this document. You may submit a comment by clicking on “Comment.” You are given the option of commenting anonymously and thus are not required to provide an email.
Don’t let them do this without a fight. At least we’re being given the opportunity to register how we feel, even if ultimately our voices are ignored.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/17/2316972/-Trump-Proposes-Eviscerating-the-Endangered-Species-Act?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
