Attorney General Bonta Co-Leads Coalition in Supporting Federal Efforts to Restore Endangered Species Act Protections and Urging Biden Administration to Go Further in Unwinding Trump Rules

OAKLAND – Co-leading a coalition of 15 attorneys general, California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced filing a comment letter regarding the Biden Administration’s proposed rules that would strengthen regulations implementing the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). While supporting the proposed rules, which largely reverse deregulatory actions adopted in 2019 by the Trump Administration, the multistate coalition also urges the Biden Administration to fully rescind the unlawful Trump rules. In California, there are currently 317 species listed as endangered or threatened under the ESA — more than any other mainland state — as well as millions of acres of designated critical habitat.

“California’s biodiversity and wildlife are unsurpassed, but increasingly at risk due to climate-fueled weather events that threaten to drive certain species closer to extinction,” said Attorney General Bonta. “I therefore support the Biden Administration’s proposal to rescind most of the unlawful Trump rules and urge the federal government to go further and unwind them in their entirety. We must be ever-vigilant in protecting our natural resources for current and future generations.”

Enacted under the Nixon Administration in 1973, the ESA is intended “to halt and reverse the trend toward species extinction, whatever the cost.” Under the ESA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) are both responsible for listing species as “endangered” or “threatened” and designating “critical habitat” for each such species based on “the best scientific data available.” Critical habitat is particularly important for ensuring that listed species have the ability to recover to sustainable population levels so that they eventually no longer need to be listed.

In the final months of the Trump Administration, FWS and NMFS finalized three rules that dramatically altered longstanding ESA regulations governing protections for newly-listed threatened species; the processes for listing and delisting species as endangered or threatened and for designating critical habitat; and requirements for evaluating and mitigating the effects of proposed federal agency actions on listed species and critical habitat. In 2019, a coalition of 20 attorneys general and the City of New York — co-led by the states of California, Massachusetts and Maryland — challenged these three rules in court as unlawful under the ESA. At the request of FWS and NMFS, the court remanded these three rules to FWS and NMFS for reconsideration without vacating or ruling on the merits of the challenged rules, meaning that there was never any court decision on the states’ claims regarding the unlawfulness of the Trump rules, and the rules remain in effect.

The Biden Administration’s proposal would largely rescind the unlawful Trump rules governing protections for newly-listed threatened species and for species listings and critical habitat designations, but would leave intact most of the unlawful Trump rules as to requirements for consultation with FWS and NMFS on proposed federal agency actions.

Co-leading these comments alongside Attorney General Bonta are the attorneys general of Maryland and Massachusetts. Joining the co-leads in submitting the comments are the attorneys general of Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

A copy of the comment letter can be found here.