mpt to use this new ruling to their advantage. The environmental lobby is just as likely as energy companies to go to court, questioning agency interpretations. Nor can we always trust courts to get it right, obviously. But I am far more comfortable today, knowing that even the all-powerful enforcers of the Endangered Species Act can be reined in when they go too far.
Even justices as different as Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg can agree on that. Trying to control private land, even to the point of stopping legitimate business activity, by declaring it habitat for a species that does not live there, is going too far.
A version of this column first appeared in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel January 11, 2019.