{"id":3696,"date":"2026-10-20T22:43:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T02:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3696"},"modified":"2026-10-20T22:43:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T02:43:42","slug":"hundreds-of-organizations-oppose-endangered-species-attacks-in-permitting-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3696","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Organizations Oppose Endangered Species Attacks in Permitting Legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>More than 200 conservation organizations sent a <a href=\"https:\/\/biologicaldiversity.org\/programs\/government-affairs\/pdfs\/Oppose-ESA-attacks-in-permitting-deal.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">letter<\/a> today urging Congress to oppose the \u201cBipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026,\u201d introduced by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Mike Lee (R-Utah). The bill includes sweeping attacks on the Endangered Species Act that would gut protections for nearly every endangered species across the country.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation would weaken the Act\u2019s gold-standard \u201cbest available science\u201d mandate, making it substantially harder to protect imperiled species and the places they live. It would also surrender authority to states to conduct Section 7 consultations \u2014 one of the most important safeguards against harm from federal agency actions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t have to choose between protecting our most endangered animals and plants and building a clean energy future,\u201d said Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity. \u201cHollowing out the Endangered Species Act only benefits energy-hungry data centers and the fossil fuel industry while leaving monarchs, manatees, and countless other species to pay the ultimate price.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bill also includes judicial review provisions that would make meaningful review of certain Endangered Species Act challenges much more difficult.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFriends of the Earth US is proud to stand beside our NGO partners in the fight to uphold our country\u2019s bedrock environmental laws,\u201d said Hallie Templeton, legal director for Friends of the Earth. \u201cIt\u2019s paramount that Congress keeps things in perspective as it continues to navigate our desperate need for a clean energy future. There is no reason to throw endangered species under the bus to secure what falls short of even a half-measure approach to achieving justly sourced, renewable energy access and affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s letter notes that \u201creal environmental champions do not trade away the world\u2019s strongest conservation law in pursuit of a legislative mirage that does nothing more than grease the wheels for pipelines, data centers, petrochemical buildouts, and the next generation of energy-guzzling tech infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 200 conservation organizations sent a letter today urging Congress to oppose the \u201cBipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026,\u201d introduced by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Mike Lee (R-Utah). The bill includes sweeping attacks on the Endangered Species Act that would gut protections for nearly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[742],"class_list":["post-3696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ciencia-y-tecnologia","tag-vr-news-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}