Here's something I whote on another post about the ESA:

Environmentalists are those who believe that "the environment" must be "protected" REGARDLESS OF COST.


By far, the worst example of this is the Endangered Species Act (ESA) which specifies that "economic considerations are irrelevant", and was based on the premise that the value of even one species is "incalculable" - i.e. infinite.
As a result, one of the first major cases required the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to totally scrap a Hydroelectric Plant/Dam that would benefit Tennesseans by providing "power generation, flood control, recreation, and regional development."
Why? The snail darter. An inch-long sub-species of fish.

Luckily, Congress later exempted the dam from the ESA.  There power plant was never built but the "land that was taken by eminent domain for under $500.00 per acre is now Tellico Village and Rarity Bay with lots selling for upwards of half a million dollars."

Oh, and "populations of the snail darter were later located in other streams."

Now, as the State of Georgia faces the imminent depletion of all drinking water as a result of this year's drought, The ESA is being used to make sure that animals have greater access to water than people.  The Fisheries & Wildlife Service and the Dept of Environment are diverting water from the primary drinking water reservoir to make sure that water levels are sufficient to make some endangered species happy.  This has the effect of making sure that PEOPLE will run out of water completely in less than a month's time.

I hope, but do not expect, that this situation might wake Congress up to the fact that the ESA is THE SINGLE WORST LAW ever promulgated by our Government.

The only thing that compares was the Delaney Clause.  If you're unfamiliar, the Delaney Clause was a clause in a Food & Cosmetics Safety Act that made it illegal to have ANY concentration, no matter how small, of a carcinogen on food products (esp. fruits & veggies).  When it became clear to the schmucks in Congress that it was not possible to have a concentration of ZERO of any carcinogen, they wisely repealed that clause & re-wrote the act.

Now, the ESA has been around for decades with the same asinine ABSOLUTE terminology as the Delaney Clause.  Endangered Species MUST, by law, be protected no matter what the cost.  Literally, no matter what the cost.  To save some tiny bug or slug could require, by law, the expenditure of Millions, Billions, Trillions, or QUADRILLIONS of dollars, or a literally INFINITE cost.  There is NO way around it.  If you try, you will be sued for the cost, or potentially jailed.  The only way around the ESA is another Act of Congress, or the repeal and rewrite of the ESA - which will likely never happen.  

This is the insanity of the Environmentalists.