Endangered Species Act revisions revoked

Last August then Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne propsed revised rules for implementation of the Endangered Species Act that would have effectively eliminated the requirement for section 7 consultations under the act.¹ Yesterday, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that the Bush/Kempthorne rule would be revoked.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that the two departments are revoking an eleventh-hour Bush administration rule that undermined Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections. Their decision requires federal agencies to once again consult with federal wildlife experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - the two agencies that administer the ESA - before taking any action that may affect threatened or endangered species.  

"By rolling back this 11th hour regulation, we are ensuring that threatened and endangered species continue to receive the full protection of the law," Salazar said. "Because science must serve as the foundation for decisions we make, federal agencies proposing to take actions that might affect threatened and endangered species will once again have to consult with biologists at the two departments." (from the press release on Interior's website)

Thanks to this decision, we don't need to rely on court challenges to reverse the rule. I am pleased to see the Obama administration reinstate rules that recognize the plain meaning of the words in the ESA.