WASHINGTON— Newly confirmed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order late Monday directing all assistant secretaries to take numerous actions to implement President Trump’s executive order on energy. Taken together, the actions would dramatically weaken protections for endangered species, public lands and climate solutions.

“Burgum is on his way to becoming the worst Interior Secretary in history with this mindless attack on America’s endangered plants and animals and our irreplaceable wildlands,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Even as imperiled species dwindle and vanish across America, this order will fan the flames of the extinction crisis. Americans don’t want to wipe out wildlife or pour gasoline on the climate emergency, but Burgum and Trump seem determined to burn it all down anyway.”

The order calls for revoking three Endangered Species Act regulations that were finalized under the Biden administration, as well as a rule protecting migratory birds from unintentional killing. It also directs the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revise protected critical habitats for endangered and threatened species.

The order contemplates rescinding or revising many other rules related to ensuring public safety, conserving important lands and addressing the climate crisis.

North America is home to 3 billion fewer birds than in 1970. Yet the secretarial order calls for rescinding a rule that restored long-standing protections for birds from unintentional but preventable killing by oil spills, mining pits, building collisions and many other threats. These protections were first undone during the first Trump administration.

Likewise, the rollback of the three Endangered Species Act regulations would resurrect Trump’s previous efforts to strip protections from threatened species, focus on economic impacts when deciding whether to protect species, and deny critical habitat protections to more species.

Under the first Trump administration, only 25 species were granted lifesaving protections under the Endangered Species Act — the lowest number of any administration. Many species, such as wolverines and hellbender salamanders, were also wrongly denied protections.

“Burgum and Trump are strapping dynamite to basic rules that protect our natural world,” said Greenwald. “If it’s fully implemented, Burgum’s order threatens to leave future generations with a greatly impoverished, hotter planet. It’s monumentally short-sighted.”