Small Business Group Asks Agency To Repeal Threatened Species Take Rule

摘要

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulation that prohibits the "take" of all threatened species listed under the Endangered Species Act exceeds the agency's authority, a small business association wrote. In its March 15 petition, the National Federation of Independent Business asked the agency to repeal the regulation at 50 C.F.R. § 17.31, which states that the take prohibition for endangered species under 50 C.F.R. § 17.21(c) also applies to threatened species. The agency promulgated the rule at issue in 1975, two years after the ESA went into effect. A "take" is defined in Section 3(18) of the ESA as an action "to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct."