Since 2008, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has consistently refused to intervene in tens of thousands of projects considered potentially harmful to endangered animals, a new analysis by a conservation group published Monday reveals.

Defenders of Wildlife looked at an internal FWS assessment on the impact of more than 88,000 development projects on animals protected by the Endangered Species Act. FWS, along with the National Marine Fisheries Service, is required under the act’s Section 7 to ensure federal projects are not likely to “jeopardize” or “destroy or adversely modify” a species or habitat.

Not one project was halted under those guidelines.

“The Endangered Species Act includes a basic, common sense, look-before-you-leap requirement: federal agencies must consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure that their proposed actions won’t threaten a listed species’ survival,” said Ya-Wei Li, senior director of the group’s Endangered Species Conservation project and a co-author of the study.

“While our findings should lay to rest the unfounded claims by ESA-opponents that the act is destroying jobs and the economy, the study raises significant questions as to why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has virtually ceased finding that any projects threaten a species’ survival,” Li said. It also “dispel[s] the myth that the Endangered Species Act blocks projects and kills jobs across the country.”