Your Voice Needed by December 22 

The Trump Administration recently unveiled proposed Endangered Species Act (the Act) rules that severely undermine the Act and make it easier for corporations such as oil, gas, and mining companies to push through environmentally destructive projects. Ultimately, these regulatory changes will have disastrous effects, pushing imperiled wildlife towards extinction. 

The four proposed rules, posted in the Federal Register on November 21, target critical habitat, blanket protections for threatened species, and the consultation process.  

The first Trump administration attempted to severely weaken the Act but their unscientific alterations were reversed by the Biden administration, which rightly acknowledged that these regulatory changes, if left untouched, would lead to species extinction. 

Please use the suggested talking points below to submit comments opposing these rules by December 22, 2025.

Significance of Proposals and How to Comment

1. Proposed Rule: Section 4(d): Blanket Rule 

Currently, under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) regulations, threatened species receive a “blanket 4(d) rule” so they automatically receive the same protections as an endangered species. These blanket protections prevent “take” of listed species (“… harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect or attempt to engage in any such conduct”). 

 This proposed regulation would end blanket protections and only grant protections to threatened species when species-specific rules are created. 

Suggested talking points: 

• Threatened species rely on the blanket 4(d) rule for immediate protections.

• Species-specific rules, while necessary for long-term recovery of the species, require significant time and energy to be created so the blanket rule provides needed protections until species-specific rules are drafted.

• Broad baseline protections ensure that species don’t fall prey to regulatory gaps or the influence of special-interest groups. 

TO COMMENT: 

1. Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0029, which is the docket number for this rulemaking action. Then, click on the Search button.  

2. On the resulting page, in the panel on the left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, check the Proposed Rule box to locate this document.  

3. You may submit a comment by clicking on “Comment.” Comments must be submitted to https://www.regulations.gov before 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Time) on December 22, 2025. 

2. Proposed Rule: Section 7: Interagency consultation 

Section 7 covers consultation among federal agencies to ensure agency actions don’t undermine endangered or threatened species or hurt critical habitat. It requires agencies to consult with USFWS and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) before carrying out any action that could (1) jeopardize species’ survival and recovery and (2) destroy or degrade critical habitat.   

The new regulations change rules that implement Section 7 of the Act, and thus greatly limit the consultation process and impact both imperiled species and the critical habitat they rely on.  

This proposal would make it more challenging for USFWS and NMFS to prove that actions requested by other federal agencies would negatively impact listed species and critical habitat. This would exclude many indirect, cumulative, or climate-driven effects from being considered. 

Suggested talking points: 

• Section 7 is crucial to ensuring that other agencies’ projects (oil drilling, mining, dams, timber sales) don’t further endanger wildlife.  

• The Section 7 consultation process has been instrumental to the Act’s remarkable success in preventing the extinction of imperiled animals and plants; 99% of species listed under the Act survive today. 

TO COMMENT: 

1. Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0044, which is the docket number for this rulemaking action. Then, click on the Search button.  

2. On the resulting page, in the panel on the left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, check the Proposed Rule box to locate this document.  

3. You may submit a comment by clicking on “Comment.” Comments must be submitted to https://www.regulations.gov before 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Time) on December 22, 2025. 

3. Proposed Rule: Section 4(b)(2): Critical habitat exclusion rule (only applies to FWS)  

Inherent in the success of the Act, is the condition that economic costs not be a factor in deciding whether to protect an animal.  

Under the new rules, efforts to save a species can occur if the price is right.  

The changes put an economic cost on saving a species. The new regulations call for greater emphasis on economic impact analysis, despite the law forbidding anything except science from influencing a listing decision. Suggested talking points: 

• Science and species conservation, not politics or money interests, should steer the designation of critical habitat.  

• Habitat loss is the main cause of extinction. This rule would weaken key habitat protection tools and drive more species towards extinction. 

TO COMMENT: 

1. Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0048, which is the docket number for this rulemaking action. Then, click on the Search button.  

2. On the resulting page, in the panel on the left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, check the Proposed Rule box to locate this document.  

3. You may submit a comment by clicking on “Comment.” Comments must be submitted to https://www.regulations.gov before 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Time) on December 22, 2025. 

4. Proposed Rule: 50 CFR Part 424: Listing and Critical habitat rules 

Science has historically led the rules in defining listing requirements and conditions for protecting critical habitats. 

This rule would reinstate the 2019 Trump listing and critical habitat regulations and would narrow the interpretation of listing requirements, making it harder to list species as endangered or threatened and easier to delist a species. These changes would make it more challenging to grant Endangered Species Act protections for species that are impacted by climate change, drought, disease, and other effects. The US Fish and Wildlife Service would also be limited in their ability to designate currently unoccupied wolf habitat as critical, even if those areas are essential for future wolf expansion and recovery.  

Suggested talking points: 

• True endangered species conservation requires forward-thinking and future projections. Removing the ability to list species by narrowing the scope of “foreseeable future” hinders our ability to proactively save species before they hover on the brink of extinction.  

• True recovery looks at all areas a species did roam, and could roam in the future – not just where they’re currently found. Gray wolves only occupy 10-12% of their historical range but will rely on unoccupied areas if the species is going to truly recover. 

• FWS and NMFS should reject this proposed rule and rely on the improvements made in 2024.  

TO COMMENT: 

1. Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0039, which is the docket number for this rulemaking action. Then, click on the Search button.  

2. On the resulting page, in the panel on the left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, check the Proposed Rule box to locate this document.  

3. You may submit a comment by clicking on “Comment.” Comments must be submitted to https://www.regulations.gov before 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Time) on December 22, 2025.