Endangered Species Law & Policy

On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” which requires all agencies to identify actions that potentially burden deployment of domestic energy resources and develop plans to revise, rescind, and suspend any such actions (Executive Order). On February 3, 2025, Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum (Secretary), issued Secretarial Order 3418, “Unleashing American Energy” (Secretarial Order), which provides 15 days for agencies within the Department of the Interior to submit a plan on how they will comply with the Executive Order.

In addition to the broad requirement for agencies to develop plans to comply with the Executive Order, the Secretarial Order identifies a number of regulations adopted under the Biden administration that should be revised, rescinded, or suspended, including three Endangered Species Act (ESA) implementing regulations finalized in April 2024: (1) regulations governing consultation under ESA section 7; (2) listing and critical habitat designations under ESA section 4; and (3) re-issuance of the “blanket” ESA section 4(d) rule covering species listed as threatened. The Secretarial order also identifies other rules that must be revised, rescinded, or suspended in order to comply with the Executive Order, including the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, BLM’s Right-of-way, Leasing and Operations for Renewable Energy Rule and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for an incidental take permitting program under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.