Thanks for the tag, I definitely want to jump in here because the most helpful thing any individual can do is write your own comment.
Iām going to give you a little bit of information about the process thatās happening here, why itās happening, and how you can best contribute to protecting the Endangered Species Act. You can skip it by scrolling to the red text, but youāll be best set up to comment and help if you know some things about whatās happening first, so please stick with me. I promise to be as simple and jargon free as possible.
First, and to catch people's attention as they scroll, here's two red wolf sisters: a species the ESA actively preserving. This is who we're doing this for.
To clarify one thing: theyāre not trying to totally repeal the ESA, the entire law, theyāre looking to roll back regulations implementing it/enforcing it to what was being used in 2019. This is still bad! Very bad! But a thing thatās important when dealing with legislation/regulation is precision in the language we use.
Okay, so hereās what you need to know. This is part of what is known as the ānotice-and-commentā rule making process, which is federally mandated. This happens with the implementation of regulations to enact new laws, or changes to the interpretation of laws. Laws like the ESA, once passed, are delegated to various federal agencies and departments to enact and make happen, and they do that by deciding what regulations need to exist to fulfill the text and intent of the law. This change to the ESA is happening because one of the earliest executive orders from this administration ādirected all departments and agencies to immediately review agency actions to identify those actions that potentially impose an undue burden on the identification, development, or use of domestic energy resources, and, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, consider suspending, revising, or rescinding agency actions identified as unduly burdensome that conflict with this national objective.ā So, as @sweetfirebird said, literally go figure out what laws and regs and protections they can interpret differently, put on hold, or trash for the energy sector. Fucking gross.
This ānotice-and-commentā process is the process with which all these federal agencies go about exploring changing regulations. Itās a formal process that is specifically designed to allow stakeholders to have input on what happens. Good news: in the ESA, the public is literally a stakeholder! Itās written into the law that any āpersonalā (basically an individual or a group of individuals) can sue the government for a violation of the law. This is actually historically the prime enforcement mechanism of the ESA. Which means you, as an American on tumblr reading this, have absolutely valid standing to go tell the feds to knock this shit off. And with the way the ānotice-and-commentā process works, they actually have to take your argument into account. (Yes, even though we know this admin is a piece of shit and dgaf). Hereās why.
A ānotice and commentā process has four major steps.
Agency issues a notice of proposed rulemaking. Thatās what youāre looking at in the first link @sweetbirdfire shared. They have to describe what the rule they want to make/change is and explain the legal authority for the rule.
The public must be given an opportunity to participate in a written comment period. Thatās what youāre being asked to do - submit a comment before the comment period is over on the 22nd.
The agency must āconsider all relevant, timely-submitted comments. If it decides to issue a final rule, the agency develops the regulatory text along with a preamble explaining the ruleās basis and responding to all significant issues raised in the comments.ā
Okay, so why did I jump to a direct quote from federal documents in the third bullet point? Because thatās the really important shit. When federal agencies move forward with rulemaking after a public comment period, they are required to consider and response to all significant issues raised. And that is why you should write your own comment if you can.
Itās really common for organizations encouraging people to leave public comment to ask people to send in form letters. Itās easy, it takes no time or real work, it shows a lot of general public support on the issue, and they can quote the comment numbers when theyāre lobbying.
But! What Iāve been told by serious professional people who work with regulatory agencies is that all those form letters only have the functional weight of a single comment during the ānotice-and-commentā process. If 100 people only bring up the same significant set of issues, that requires far less time and work for the agency to respond to than even 20 people writing in with their individual concerns. Iāve seen follow-ups on comment periods where they actually count how many people raised issues on a single topic or concern - but the form letters only counted as one ācommentā because they were the exact same thing.
And while the political agency head probably wants to fast-track this process of changing the regs to let the feds tear up whatever the fuck they want, a ānotice-and-comment periodā is a really good way to gum up those gears. There are still people in lower-level positions who do this daily work and I expect that theyāre opposed to this and will go through the whole process like theyāre been trained to. Under normal administrations, an overwhelming number of concerns raised during comment periods have stalled the creation/change of specific regulations for a decade. This is a process that works best when as many people as possible participate, and itās detrimental to our interests as invested members of the public that that isnāt more widely known or the process understood.
So! What does that mean you should do here?
Write your own comment if you have the time/spoons.
Literally, write it in your own words, rather than using the form letters provided. If you make it a ādifferent commentā it has to be considered separately and your concerns on the topic will be given more weight. Even if you just stick to the topics the Oregon Zoo offered: to be clear, theyāre really good ones.
But, youāll have even more impact if you can tie it to specific concerns for you. It takes a little more work so I donāt expect everyone to do this, but if you have some specialized or local knowledge that can be relevant, this is a great time to drop that in. Tie the concern to endangered or threatened species in your specific community, or an ecosystem that you know companies might want to pillage.
Your comment doesnāt have to be super well written or perfectly edited. It can be in language about as casual as youād use in a tumblr post (with punctuation, though). This isnāt something youāre turning in for a grade - itās raising your hand to say hey, I object! Youāre not a major advocacy group or professional org, you donāt have to be perfect, you just have to tell them how you feel. That being said. Public comments are public record. You can submit them anonymously but donāt include identifying information.
Hereās a link directly to the comment portal. While the site has a text box embedded in the page, you can also submit a document/file containing your comment.
https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0039-0001
Comments close at 11:59 PM EST (4:59 GMT) on December 22nd. We have less than five days to get more comments in. Iām really not kidding when I say every unique, individual comment makes an impact. Letās do this.
Images from @animalphotorefs
