Trump Administration Proposes Weakening Endangered Species Act with Harmful, New Rules

The proposed rules would undermine extremely popular law; public has 30-days to submit comments.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration is proposing to fundamentally weaken implementation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in ways that could bring imminent harm to imperiled species. If finalized, the rules would bias listing decisions with unreliable economic analyses, obstruct the ability to list new protected species, and make it easier to remove those now on the federal endangered or threatened list. The rules would also make it harder to designate and protect critical habitats for threatened and endangered wildlife, to protect species impacted by changing environmental conditions, eliminate protections for threatened species, reduce voluntary conservation incentives and weaken the consultation process.

The Trump administration’s rules could send some of America’s most vulnerable plants and wildlife, such as monarch butterflies, sea turtles, manatees, wolverines, and hundreds more, on a pathway toward extinction.

The proposed rules follow other attacks against wildlife by the Trump administration this year, including one aimed at allowing the destruction of species’ habitat, proposals to rescind the Roadless Rule and Public Lands Rule, and an effort to convene a committee of Trump’s own appointees to decide the fate of endangered species.

According to polling data published in June 2025, more than four out of five Americans support the Endangered Species Act, a profound level of agreement that has held firm for three decades. Additionally, support for the bedrock environmental law is consistent among people living in urban, suburban, and rural places.

In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Loren Blackford released the following statement:

“The Trump administration is stopping at nothing in its quest to put corporate polluters over people, wildlife and the environment. After failing in their latest attempt to sell off our public lands, they now want to enable the wholesale destruction of wildlife habitat for a short-term boost in polluters’ bottom lines. These regulations attempt to undermine implementation of one of America’s bedrock environmental laws, and they could seal the fate of animals that, without these protections, would disappear from the earth. For decades, the Sierra Club has worked to defend this critical law, and we will use every tool at our disposal to stop this reckless administration from selling out our wildlife and wild places to corporations and billionaires.”

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.