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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has declared today “Endangered Species Day.” The irony of dedicating one day on the calendar to species conservation is that every day is endangered species day if you operate an irrigation project; own a farm, ranch, or timberland in dedicated critical habitat; want to build homes for people to inhab ...

Here is a summary of this week’s highlights at PLF: Endangered Species — Polar Bear The Supreme Court denied our petition for writ of certiorari in our challenge to the Polar Bear listing.  This is the end of the line in this case.  Despite the steadily growing population of polar bears throughout the arctic, and … ...

Today is a big day for all things greenhouse gas, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releasing its Fifth Assessment Report.  Earlier this week, the similarly named (but differently purposed) Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change released its latest report, Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science.  These tw ...

Environment — Endangered Species Act — Sea Otters We filed our complaint in California Sea Urchin Commission v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service.  The Service has a statutory duty to contain a transplanted colony of California sea otters in Southern California.  As noted in our blog, because the Service decided last year to i ...

Last week, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that it would not list the ribbon seal under the Endangered Species Act.  The agency explained that the species is very adaptable, and should be able to survive the negative impacts of declining sea ice habitat.  That is an interesting conclusion, because the Fish & Wildlife Service ...

Environment — Endangered Species – Wolverine We filed our comments on the listing of the Wolverine as a “distinct population segment” of a subspecies.  The problem here is that the Endangered Species Act does not countenance the listing of such a thing.  The government may list species, subspecies, and even “distinct ...

Limited Government — Tax Limitations We filed our petition and complaint in Morning Star Packing Company v. California Air Resources Board.  This is the case where we allege that California’s unique system of creating an auction for emission credits under AB 32 violates the California Constitution because scheme to raise billions of do ...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the DC Circuit’s opinion today upholding the polar bear listing relies mainly on the principle of deference to administrative decision-making that is at the so-called “frontiers of science.”  But I think it also fair to say that the court misconstrued or simply misunderstood what PLF’s mai ...

Earlier today, in In re: Polar Bear Endangered Species Act Listing & Section 4(d) Rule Litigation, a three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the United States Fish and Widlife Service’s decision to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the ESA.  (Pacific Legal Foundation represents several of the plain ...