The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) jointly announced that they had finalized changes to its Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations, including provisions that limit the extent to which climate change impacts can be relied upon as a basis for determining whether a species should be listed as a “threatened species” under the Act.

FWS issued proposed changes to its Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations which include provisions that would limit the extent to which FWS can rely on future climate change impacts as a basis for determining whether a species should be listed as a “threatened species” under the Act.

The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) published a final notice in the federal register announcing its decision to remove the Yellowstone Grizzly from the list of endangered and threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, based in part on its determination that climate change does not pose an immediate or foreseeable threat to the population segment. 

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL-6) introduced a bill entitled “Stopping EPA Overreach Act of 2017” (H.R. 637). The purpose of the bill is to prevent EPA and other agencies from using their existing statutory authority federal to regulate greenhouse gases.