Groups Seek to Scrap Biden-Era Endangered Species Rule Overhaul

Conservation groups say a Biden-era change to endangered species protections dilutes regulatory protections in a new suit filed Monday.

The Interior Department’s “blanket rule” applying endangered-level protections to species listed only as threatened species undermines how groups can measure biodiversity recovery, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Property and Environment Research Center told the US District Court for the District of Montana.

The Interior offered “legally deficient reasons” for promulgating the rule last year and oversteps the Endangered Species Act’s “necessary and advisable” conservation standard.

The rule restricts state management of wildlife and reduces incentives for habitat restoration “without any ...