The Trump administration announces it is rolling back a key protection for endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). According to multiple outlets, the change repeals a prior regulatory definition of prohibited “harm” to endangered animals and plants. The previous framework treated “harm” as including actions that significantly change a species’s habitat to the point that it “actually” kills or injures wildlife. By removing or revising that language, the administration recasts how “harm” is assessed in environmental actions that involve ESA-listed species.
The reports also describe a broader shift in how threatened and endangered species are considered in related government decision-making. One outlet characterizes the move as removing regulatory language used to protect wildlife habitats, while another focuses on the specific repeal of the earlier “harm” definition.
All accounts attribute the change to the Trump administration’s rulemaking, and none describe a separate new standard that would replace the prior definition. The combined coverage indicates the administration is narrowing the circumstances under which certain habitat impacts would be treated as prohibited “harm” under the ESA.
