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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is finalizing major changes Monday to the way it enforces the landmark Endangered Species Act, a move it says will reduce regulatory burden but critics charge will drive more creatures to extinction.
A baby loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) struggles to reach the Mediterranean Sea, in Adrasan, Antalya, Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 11, 2019. Caretta carettas, a rare species facing the threat of extinction, lay their eggs on certain beaches only and their breeding season is between May 1 to October 1. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)
The final rule broadly sticks to those changes, according to a person briefed on the changes who was not authorized to publicly speak about them.
Conservationists promised legal action.
“This effort to gut protections for endangered and threatened species has the same two features of most Trump administration actions: it’s a gift to industry, and it’s illegal. We’ll see the Trump administration in court about it,” Drew Caputo, a vice president of litigation for the conservation advocacy group Earthjustice.
The Endangered Species Act currently protects more than 1,600 species in the United States and its territories.
A United Nations report warned in May that more than 1 million plants and animals globally face extinction, some within decades, owning to human development, climate change and other threats. The report called the rate of species loss a record.
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