Last week, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein joined a multi-state challenge of the Trump Administration’s new attempt to gut the Endangered Species Act.
Stein and 17 other state Attorneys General are challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service’s attempt to finalize three rules that would weaken current protections and reduce federal enforcement of protections for these species and their habitats.
“Protecting North Carolina’s environment also means protecting our state’s plants and animals and their habitats. The Endangered Species Act is critical to those efforts,” said Stein. “I’m suing the administration because its actions are illegal and would put endangered and threatened species at risk of extinction.”
Among other points, the lawsuit asserts the new rules illegally insert economic considerations into the Endangered Species Act’s explicitly science-driven analysis.
