Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is boasting today that the Trump administration is siding with a lawsuit her office joined with Alabama and other states to override Obama administration rule changes on critical wildlife habitats.

Rutledge thinks it’s stupid to extend protection to habitats not currently inhabited by species in need of protection. Others think it dangerous not to acknowledge climate change and how that has affected  what plants can be grown and wildlife can be sheltered in changing areas.

Rutledge sees it as a landowner rights issue, a powerful political point in Arkansas, where hog shit is more worthy of protection than the Buffalo River.

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“I am pleased that the Trump Administration has agreed to reconsider the federal government’s ‘critical habitat’ rules, which have threatened the rights of property owners for far too long solely based on theoretical chance,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “Our wildlife must be protected for future generations, but it is completely unreasonable to give the federal government broad authority to restrict land usage just because bureaucrats in D.C. think an animal might, possibly, one day inhabit that land – even if that land does not have features necessary for its survival. These rules are a clear example of an Obama-era overreach that must be changed to protect the rights of land owners and the States.”