PLF has called for a true accounting of the Endangered Species Act, pointing to a study released on April 14 showing that billions of dollars in costs spent enforcing and complying with the ESA are not being reported to Congress or the American people.

The study, Accounting for Species: Calculating the True Costs of the Endangered Species Act, was conducted by the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). PERC researchers found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grossly underreported federal and state ESA costs in its report to Congress, and completely ignored the private economic and social costs of ESA compliance, which together easily total billions of dollars a year.