Energy & Environment

Congress Has a Chance To Fix the Endangered Species Act

Next week, Congress will vote on a bill to modernize the regulation that hurts property owners and conservation efforts.

Megan Jenkins and John Nagle | 11.6.2026 2:35 PM

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Next week, the Senate will consider a new permitting deal that promises to make it easier to build in America. From mines and pipelines to transmission lines and renewable energy projects, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) would prune our regulatory thicket that delays development and increases costs for commonsense projects.

While the bill's proposed reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act have attracted much of the attention, its changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) are especially promising in helping the law achieve its goals while reducing unnecessary obstacles to infrastructure, energy production, and economic growth.

More than five decades after its enactment, the ESA has struggled to achieve its ultimate objective: recovering endangered species so they no longer need federal protection. Meanwhile, its regulatory requirements can discourage conservation and create costly uncertainty for landowners and businesses.

According to a 2023 analysis by the Property and Environment Research Center, just 3 percent of species listed under the ESA were delisted due to recovery. That's 57 of 1,732 species over the law's first 50 years. Meanwhile, the ESA's costs are huge. Federal agencies spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually administering........

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