Watchdog Calls on President-Elect Biden to Immediately Reverse the Trump Administration’s Damage to Wildlife, Endangered Species

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of its Damage Control project launched last month, Accountable.US is urging the Biden administration to start reversing the Trump administration’s harmful wildlife policies immediately after President-elect Biden is sworn in on January 20. The Trump administration has gutted protections for endangered species and their habitat in order to pad the pockets of big oil companies and massive corporations. 

“We urge President-elect Biden to immediately start the process of reversing rules put in place by the Trump administration that harm wildlife and endangered species,” said Chris Saeger, spokesman for Accountable.US. “Donald Trump put the profits of big oil companies and fossil fuel lobbyists ahead of protecting an outdoor heritage that presidents of both parties have safeguarded for decades. The Biden administration must put an end to these giveaways and start to fix the damage of the last four years.” 

Many companies that called for, or would benefit from, these irresponsible decisions were the former clients of Trump’s Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. The Biden administration should reverse these policies so that federal wildlife managements benefits all Americans, not just the president’s allies: 

• Restore protections for the sage grouse and create new plans for oil and gas leasing on the millions of acres of public lands that Trump allowed by amending the greater sage grouse resource management plan.
   
• Cease to implement Trump’s changes to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which would allow “incidental” taking or killing of migratory birds, and came at the behest of industry groups like the Western Energy Alliance.
   
• Reverse the Trump Administration’s attempts to redefine “habitat” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in a way that would ignore threats to species could change as impacts of climate change become more severe.

Accountable.US has released full documentation for the corrupt origins of these harmful policies on its Damage Control site, which catalogs solutions to harmful Trump policies the Biden administration should pursue to make the government work for all Americans again.

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