Attorney General Steve Marshall announced he is leading a national coalition of 18 attorneys general urging the Biden administration not to reverse Trump era definitions of “critical habitat” that may affect property use and value.
Marshall’s letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service was cosigned by the attorneys general of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The issue involves the Endangered Species Act and the federal government’s authority to designate land or water as a “critical habitat” for species the government considers endangered. Property that receives this designation is often subject to strict restrictions which can affect property value and use.
In 2017, the Obama administration argued that an area could be a “critical habitat” for a species even if the species could not survive there. In response, Marshall led a group of states opposing that approach, and the Supreme Court held that the Obama administration had overreached.
Marshall supported Trump administration reforms that protected species without crippling the rights of landowners. The Biden administration is now considering changing the Trump administration’s definition of “habitat” for use in “critical habitat” designation.
In the letter, the group urged the agencies to reject the Biden administration’s efforts to roll back the reformed regulations. Under current rules, an area may be designated as critical habitat only if it currently or periodically has the conditions and resources to support a species, and not just because such conditions could be developed in the future. Furthermore, current rules provide an important balance, providing analysis of the economic impact and whether excluding an area from critical habitat would result in the extinction of a species.
Marshall stated, “I will not allow the Biden administration’s misplaced priorities and overreach to destroy the vital progress we have made. If federal bureaucrats are allowed to designate land as critical habitat for species even though that species does not and cannot live there, then there is no limit to the areas they can claim. The results could be devastating for Alabama’s farms, loggers, and miners as well as for landowners throughout our nation.”
