Trump Administration Moves to Weaken Endangered Species Protections

WASHINGTON — The Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service today set out to weaken critical protections offered by the Endangered Species Act.

Following is a statement from Rebecca Riley, senior attorney in the Nature Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council: 

“The very agencies that are charged with saving endangered species are proposing to weaken the bedrock protections of the Endangered Species Act. This law has saved 99 percent of listed species from extinction. These proposed rules are a short-sighted attempt to appease developers and polluters at the expense of imperiled species.”

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The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.