Photograph Source: Eric Kilby – CC BY-SA 4.0
This week the Trump administration, with the most corrupt cabinet in the nation’s history, moved to gut the Endangered Species Act while the world is experiencing what’s been called the “Sixth Mass Extinction Event” with more than a million species facing extinction from human-caused impacts.
Since Montana retains virtually all of the species that were here when Lewis and Clark’s expedition rolled through more than 200 years ago, it’s particularly bad news. A number of those native species already listed as threatened or endangered could now face extinction – which would leave our state much diminished simply to favor extractive industries.
This is nothing new from a president and administration that seem to live in the past. But inexorably denying the ever-worsening climate crisis and the fact that you cannot infinitely exploit finite resources for the demands of continuous growth does not make it reality.
The changes would leave species listed as threatened exempt from any “blanket” protections and require formulation of extensive species-specific plans that could drag out for years, perhaps outliving the species they were supposed to be protecting and restoring.
Likewise, although the Endangered Species Act didn’t mention “climate change” specifically, the new rules would intentionally deny consideration of the impacts from the radically changing climate that are occurring far faster than previously predicted and across a much larger spectrum of land, sea and air.
As is so despicably common for this administration, the “favors” would be handed out to specific industries. For instance, changing the definition of “harm,” which means “altering or destroying” habitat essential to a specie’s survival, could allow mining, logging, and oil and gas exploration and development in what is currently considered “critical habitat.”
None of this is good news for the environment, our already pounded native species, or the future of Montana or the nation.
Moreover, most of it makes no sense at all.
Gutting the Endangered Species Act to enable more production is the last thing the oil and gas industry needs since there’s already an “oversupply” of oil and gas – and that’s coming from OPEC, the industry, and Wall Street. Projections are for $55 per barrel oil or lower, which is barely above the break even point for exploration and development and surely not worth forcing species to extinction to open more critical land and water habitat to oil and gas production.
Of course the administration will face immediate legal challenges, including the fact that the Supreme Court has already ruled that considering “harm” to habitat is part and parcel of the goal of the Endangered Species Act.
Ironically, Trump’s Supreme Court may have already hamstrung the changes in its ruling that overthrew the Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council decision – namely, that government agencies should not be given broad deference in the formulation or enactment of administrative rules that go beyond the limits and specific language of the enabling laws. While the decision was descried by environmentalists and conservationists when the decision was handed down because they thought government agencies would be on their side, it will now likely limit what Trump’s administration can do — when government isn’t on your side.
Rest assured, this will engender a legal battle in the coming years as well as driving some of Montana’s struggling native species to extinction. Adding insult to that injury, it’s worth noting that Bozeman’s Property and Environment Research Center and Missoula’s Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation have already gone to court in support of the changes – and should be held fully accountable for the ensuing damages they will inflict on Montana’s threatened and endangered native species.
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