The Sierra Club says an internal memo uncovered by The New York Times directs the US Fish and Wildlife Service to implement the Endangered Species Act in a way that would undermine the law's core purpose and legalize the killing of America's most vulnerable wildlife, including endangered wolves, manatees, and owls.
In its Insider newsletter, the environmental group said the directive would give corporations a license to kill endangered wildlife, with destroying protected animals and their habitats becoming legal unless a company explicitly admits that killing wildlife was its intention. The Sierra Club described the move as a dangerous new low in what it called the Trump administration's relentless attacks on the Endangered Species Act, and urged supporters to email their senators to stop it.
The newsletter also reported a legal victory in Michigan, where the DC District Court struck down what the Sierra Club called the Trump administration's illegal attempt to force the J.H. Campbell coal plant to stay online past its planned retirement. The group said the ruling followed a year of legal, organizing, media, and digital pressure by the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and the State of Michigan.
On clean water, the Sierra Club said the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with gutting the Clean Water Act by further limiting which waters are protected federally, putting streams and wetlands at risk. It called the move a blatant giveaway to corporate polluters and urged the public to submit comments to the EPA before an October 9 deadline.
The group also said Trump's EPA is attempting to say that climate pollution from US power plants poses no threat to health and the environment, and is seeking to repeal 2024 greenhouse gas standards for power plants and eliminate climate pollution controls for the electric sector. It said the Supreme Court has upheld the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases for nearly two decades.
Separately, the Sierra Club said families are paying more each month to keep the lights on while utilities keep investing in expensive, polluting fossil fuels, and called on Congress to tell the Department of Energy to stop handouts to coal utilities and put affordable, clean energy first. It also pointed to signs of recovery for the Hawaiian green sea turtle, which it said is benefiting from the efforts of Native Hawaiians, researchers, and volunteers.