By Doc Hastings, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman
Congress last renewed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1988, which means it has been nearly a quarter of a century since any substantial updates have been made. Originally established to protect threatened and endangered plants and animals, the law boasts only a one percent recovery rate – meaning it’s failing to achieve its primary purpose. This decades-old, expired law needs to be improved so that it can be more effective for both species and people.
One of the greatest obstacles to the ESA’s success is the way in which it has become a tool for excessive litigation. The ESA has become part of an industry to reward an army of environmental lawyers suing to exploit vague definitions and deadlines that realistically cannot be met. This dramatic proliferation of lawsuits has serious consequences for both species recovery and our economy.
First, endless litigation diverts valuable time and resources away from actual recovery efforts, and paves the way for regulations that are shutting down economic recovery and energy production. Agency personnel, states, communities and private enterprise are forced to react to lawsuits, thereby affecting real efforts to conserve and recover species.
Second, over the past four years, more than 500 lawsuits have cost taxpayers millions of dollars – dollars that go straight to the pockets of special interest lawyers and are then used to sue the federal government again.
Third, there’s an apparent lack of transparency and accountability to taxpayers when ESA settlements are negotiated behind closed doors by attorneys that receive taxpayer-funded fees from federal agencies. According to information obtained from the Justice Department, over $21 million has been paid out in attorney fees in recent years. And that’s just what we know about.
In 2011, the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced it had negotiated “mega-settlements” with two litigious environmental organizations, the Center for Biological Diversity and the WildEarth Guardians. While DOI touts the settlements as “an improvement of the ESA,” these settlements raise serious questions about the Obama Administration’s scope of authority and priorities. The settlements require DOI to decide by 2016 whether to list 779 species and designate critical habitat in all 50 states and Puerto Rico expeditiously. In the year since the settlements have been signed, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has already moved ahead to list 107 more species.
The Obama Administration’s most recent proposal to list the Lesser Prairie Chicken as an endangered species is the latest example of how the ESA is being driven by litigation instead of data and science. This decision could affect as much as 18 million acres and have devastating job and economic impacts throughout five states, threatening oil and natural gas production, energy transmission, renewable wind energy and agriculture.
It’s time to review the ESA. It’s only working for lawyers, not species or job providers. As Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, I will work to modernize it so it can truly work for species and people.
