{"id":619957,"date":"2026-09-10T03:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T03:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/619957\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T03:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T03:18:08","slug":"us-states-sue-trump-over-weakening-of-endangered-species-protections-wildlife-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/619957\/","title":{"rendered":"US states sue Trump over weakening of endangered species protections | Wildlife News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and Washington, DC, say government has illegally rolled back landmark protections.<\/p>\n

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Published On 10 Sep 202610 Sep 2026<\/p>\n

A group of attorneys general in the United States have sued President Donald Trump\u2019s administration for weakening protections for endangered species<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The group of 20 Democratic-led states, plus the District of Columbia, filed two lawsuits on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

The complaints come less than two months after the Department of Interior and Department of Commerce announced final rules that could make it easier for companies to develop sensitive lands that are home to endangered species.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump administration is trying to undermine the law, the will of Congress and the will of the people who overwhelmingly support protections for endangered species,\u201d Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of stewardship, this administration\u2019s approach to our land, to our water, is one of exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the two lawsuits argues that the government has unlawfully narrowed the definition of \u201charm\u201d in the 1973 Endangered Species Act, a landmark piece of legislation to protect animals and plants at risk of extinction.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarm\u201d, under the law, has long been interpreted to include threats to those species\u2019 habitats.<\/p>\n

But the Trump administration\u2019s new rule marks a \u201creversal of staggering proportions\u201d, the states argued.<\/p>\n

It would open the door to activities such as mining and oil drilling<\/a> in sensitive habitats so long as they are not \u201cdirected immediately and intentionally\u201d at particular animals.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups have also sued over the change.<\/p>\n

The second lawsuit filed on Wednesday challenges two new rules. One eliminates wide protections for newly-threatened species unless the US Fish and Wildlife Service creates species-specific regulations.<\/p>\n

The second rule requires the government to consider objections from private companies before declaring areas \u201ccritical habitats\u201d.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit argues that such changes leave endangered species with fewer safeguards than what Congress had outlined in its law.<\/p>\n

The 1973 law has been credited with helping restore the populations of animals such as condors, grizzly bears and humpback whales. It is seen as a keystone achievement of US conservation efforts.<\/p>\n

But the Trump administration has pledged to roll back environmental protections<\/a>\u00a0in favour of prioritising economic growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrill, baby, drill\u201d was a popular slogan during Trump\u2019s 2024 re-election campaign, as he promised to open protected lands to greater oil exploration and private development.<\/p>\n

Critics of Trump\u2019s regulation-slashing fear he may trigger irreversible changes, pushing species to extinction.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaring for our wildlife and our environment is part of caring for our future,\u201d California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. \u201cYet President Trump seems to care only for himself and his industry friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Trump administration has argued that environmental protections have gone too far.<\/p>\n

It accused Wednesday\u2019s lawsuits of seeking to defend \u201cregulatory overreach\u201d that went beyond what Congress had intended.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe role of federal agencies is to faithfully implement the Endangered Species Act as written, not to expand its reach through interpretations favoured by advocacy organizations,\u201d an Interior Department spokesperson said, according to the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and Washington, DC, say government has illegally rolled back landmark protections. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[54,969,246,1523,61,60,43,1650,82,115,2739,263],"class_list":["post-619957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-courts","tag-donald-trump","tag-environment","tag-government","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}