As part of an effort to “provide greater transparency and certainty” for the public and stakeholders, the U.S. Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service today announced that it is seeking comments by Thursday, Oct. 8 on its proposal to amend Endangered Species Act regulations to establish a process for excluding areas of critical habitat.
USFWS said that it wants to “articulate clearly” when and how the agency will undertake an exclusion analysis, including identifying a nonexhaustive list of categories of potential impacts to consider, and notes that the proposed rule would respond to Supreme Court case law, reflect agency experience, codify current agency practices, and make modifications to current agency practice.
