Attorney General Tong to Challenge Trump Administration's Rollbacks of Endangered Species Act Regulations

09/09/2026

New Rules Put Species and their Habitats at Risk

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general announcing two lawsuits to be filed today to protect endangered and threatened species, one against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and another against FWS and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (together, “the Services”). The suits challenge new rules that gut essential protections for wildlife under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and threaten the survival of imperiled species. The rules make it easier for private companies or individuals to modify or degrade the habitats of listed threatened and endangered species and leave threatened species without core protections.

“Donald Trump is sacrificing entire species for short-term corporate and political gain. The consequences of these reckless and callous rollbacks cannot be fixed in the next election cycle. For half a century, the Endangered Species Act has been an American success story. We sued and stopped Trump from implementing these rollbacks in his first term, and we’re suing again now to save our environment and countless threatened and endangered species from irreversible, permanent harm,” said Attorney General Tong.

The coalition’s first lawsuit challenges the Services’ rescission of the longstanding regulatory definition of “harm.” Previously, the rule defined harm to include “significant habitat modification or degradation” that could kill or injure wildlife by damaging species’ natural habitats and behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering. Altering this definition reduces protections for habitats and makes it easier for them to be damaged or destroyed, even when that destruction ultimately threatens the survival of protected species.

The second lawsuit challenges two rule changes by FWS that reduce protections for threatened species and create a new process for designating areas as “critical habitat.” The first rule rescinds FWS’s regulations that automatically protect all newly listed threatened species. The second rule establishes a new process for designating areas as “critical habitat,” that will leave areas essential to species’ conservation without the protections that Congress intended. Together, these changes put threatened and endangered species and their habitats at risk and undermine the comprehensive protections Congress mandated under the ESA.

Research shows habitat loss is the primary cause of species decline. In both lawsuits, Attorney General Tong and the coalition argue the Services’ rationale for gutting habitat protections is contrary to the intent of the ESA, which Congress enacted to protect endangered and threatened wildlife and the ecosystems they depend on for survival. In the second lawsuit, Attorney General Tong and the coalition argue that FWS’s rescission of automatic protections for newly listed threatened species is contrary to the ESA’s conservation purpose because it leaves threatened species without protection necessary for their survival and substantially increases the risk that they will become endangered. The coalition argues these rules are also contrary to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Joining Attorney General Tong in filing today’s lawsuits, which are co-led by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, California, Maryland, and Washington, are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

Assistant Attorney General Daniel Salton and Deputy Associate Attorney General Matthew Levine, Chief of the Environment Section are assisting the Attorney General in this matter.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

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Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov

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