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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Threatened Wildlife Species Face New Challenges

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Wednesday, January 2, 2019   

DENVER — The Trump administration is expected to finalize new rules that critics argue would weaken the Endangered Species Act.

According to Hailey Hawkins, Southern Rockies field representative of the Endangered Species Coalition, under current law, species listed as threatened automatically get the same protections as those listed as endangered. But under the new rules, new candidates for threatened status would not be protected.

"Oftentimes, species go extinct waiting to get listed,” Hawkins said. “But now, if we're going to make threatened species wait even longer for protections, that just increases our chances of losing even more species."

The proposal also would require the U.S. Interior Department to consider economic analysis for the first time before determining a listing, which Hawkins said could put industry profits above the needs of wildlife and entire ecosystems. The Trump administration has argued that it is necessary to remove regulations it sees as barriers to fossil fuel development in order to achieve energy dominance.

Hawkins said the proposal will make it much harder to prevent loss of habitat, a primary cause of extinctions. And the new rules also would prohibit listing species based on threats posed by climate change.

"So anything that we do that fragments habitat or destroys habitat is going to be really bad for wildlife, including climate change, development, or if that's extractive industries, like oil and gas or logging,” she said.

According to a 2015 poll conducted by independent researchers, 90 percent of American voters across political, regional and demographic lines support the Endangered Species Act.

Last September, conservation groups submitted more than 800,000 public comments opposing the administration's proposed changes.



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