Today, conservation groups and a fishing guide filed suit in federal court in San Francisco to challenge the Trump administration’s new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that “harm” to species does not include destroying their habitat. The decision reverses 50 years of bipartisan agreement that protecting species’ habitat is at the heart of the ESA and, without it, many species will go extinct.

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Recently, we wrapped up the public comment period for the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Leasing Draft Proposed Program, which targets the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico, parts of the Eastern Gulf, Alaska, and California. Despite the draft being announced the week before Thanksgiving and the holiday period cutting into nearly three weeks of organizing time, 308,398 comments were submitted to the Federal Register opposing the Program and further oil and gas expansion. That is no...