A push to alter the Endangered Species Act continued Tuesday at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The draft bill from Wyoming Senator John Barrasso would give state and local officials more power on species recovery teams, prioritize state scientific studies over the feds, and exempt federal listing decisions from judicial review. The Endangered Species Coalition’s Melissa Smith tells us, in recent years, many states have sided with industry in arguing against protections for certain species.
“With Barrasso’s bill, we may see that industry takes precedence over restoring species, giving the timber industry and the oil industry, and the extractive industries, preference over wildlife and biodiversity.”
Backers of the Barrasso bill say in the past, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has sometimes gone against state wishes in listing certain species. Dozens of species in Michigan are endangered, threatened, or proposed for listing, including the gray wolf, the Canada lynx, and the Indiana bat.
