Articles

Idaho joins PLF’s defense of the Congressional Review Act

July 16, 2018 | By JONATHAN WOOD

The Congressional Review Act should be one of the nation’s least controversial laws. To restore some measure of democratic accountability to the administrative state, it requires federal agencies to submit the rules they impose on us to our elected representatives for review before they go into effect. That’s it! The law imposes a simpl ...

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Don’t know how to identify every one of the 1,500 endangered species? This group wants to throw you in prison.

May 11, 2018 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Ok, that’s a slight overstatement. But not as much of one as you would think. Activist group WildEarth Guardians apparently dreams of a world in which people can be thrown in federal prison if they accidentally hit the wrong rodent scurrying across a dark highway, disturb the wrong insect while building a tree house, or … ...

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New report shows the conservation benefits of regulating endangered and threatened species differently

April 26, 2018 | By JONATHAN WOOD

This week, the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) published The Road to Recovery: How restoring the Endangered Species Act’s two-step process can prevent extinction and promote recovery. In that report, I explain how returning to Congress’ original design for the Endangered Species Act—according to which the statute&# ...

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A postscript to the Utah prairie dog case : federal agency embraces state-led reform

April 13, 2018 | By JONATHAN WOOD

For decades, a federal agency had forbidden people in southwestern Utah from doing things that most of us take for granted in our own communities, like building homes, starting businesses, or protecting their airport, playgrounds, and cemetery from disruption, all ostensibly to protect the Utah prairie dog. Thanks to a lawsuit PLF filed on behalf ...

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Property rights are key to protecting Maine’s rockweed ecosystem

November 14, 2017 | By JONATHAN WOOD

the Maine Supreme Judicial Court will hear oral argument in a case that, befitting the season, is a cornucopia of PLF issues. … ...

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Lesser prairie chicken delisted

July 19, 2016 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Today, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service formally removed the lesser prairie chicken — a species widely distributed across Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, including key areas for energy development — from the Endangered Species Act’s threatened list. The delisting was the result of a lawsuit against the agency ...

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Good news for conservation : Feds abandon lesser prairie chicken appeal

May 17, 2016 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it was abandoning its appeal of a federal court ruling overturning its decision to list the lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered Species Act. This is a big win for conservation. As you may recall, the court struck down the listing because the federal government … ...

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PLF petition challenges illegal Endangered Species Act regulation

March 15, 2016 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Today, PLF submitted a petition with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, challenging a regulation that illegally extends the Endangered Species Act’s burdensome take prohibition to all threatened species. The petition argues that federal bureaucrats have no authority to reverse Congress’ judgment that the stringent take prohibition sh ...

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The Center for Biological Diversity goes batty

February 15, 2016 | By JONATHAN WOOD

The Center for Biological Diversity is threatening to sue the Fish & Wildlife Service for not imposing ruinous and unnecessary restrictions on private property owners throughout 37 states to protect the Northern long-eared bat. It contends that heavy-handed “take” regulations should be imposed despite the fact that the species is th ...