Bush does end run around the Endangered Species Act.

[Tricky]

Seems that Dubya wants to take one last pot-shot at the environment before he leaves.

The Bush administration cleared the way Thursday for federal agencies to skip consultations with government scientists when embarking on projects that could impact endangered wildlife, the interior secretary said.

It appears that all these nasty rules about talking to scientists about environmental repercussions and costing businesses money. The new plan is to let government bureaucrats make decisions on what sorts of things can affect endangered species.

"The responsibility to initiate consultation will still lie with the federal agency undertaking the action," Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said, but if the agency in question can satisfy the requirement that no harm will come to an endangered species, then there is no need to consult with either the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Services.

The determination of "no harm" will rest with agency bureaucrats instead of scientists, but the agencies can still seek the input of the scientists on a voluntary basis, Kempthorne said.

Obama has said he will reverse the changes, but because they will already be in effect before he takes office, it will have to go through "channels". Also there is the possibility that Congress could block the changes. So I expect that companies with "projects" that have been stalled by the EPA will be scurrying frantically to hasten their approval through this short loophole.

I've defended Bush on some points, like his position on illegal aliens and some others, but the place where he gets zero credit is in his continued evisceration of environmental laws. Was Dubya frightened by a bear when he was young or something?

 

[Upchurch]

What? Is he still around? Why?


Honestly, though, I wonder what goes through that man's head.

 

[Tricky]

Honestly, though, I wonder what goes through that man's head.

Wind, mostly. When he walks, his ears whistle.

 

[fuelair]

Seems that Dubya wants to take one last pot-shot at the environment before he leaves.

It appears that all these nasty rules about talking to scientists about environmental repercussions and costing businesses money. The new plan is to let government bureaucrats make decisions on what sorts of things can affect endangered species.


Obama has said he will reverse the changes, but because they will already be in effect before he takes office, it will have to go through "channels". Also there is the possibility that Congress could block the changes. So I expect that companies with "projects" that have been stalled by the EPA will be scurrying frantically to hasten their approval through this short loophole.

I've defended Bush on some points, like his position on illegal aliens and some others, but the place where he gets zero credit is in his continued evisceration of environmental laws. Was Dubya frightened by a bear when he was young or something?

It was passing through a bear's digestive system , I would assume - since he's just a big pile of...............

 

[LawnOven]

I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.

Perhaps the Human Being, Fish peace talks broke down.

 

[applecorped]

Wind, mostly. When he walks, his ears whistle.

[insert tasteless joke about Obam's ears here]

 

[gtc]

Obama has said he will reverse the changes, but because they will already be in effect before he takes office, it will have to go through "channels". Also there is the possibility that Congress could block the changes. So I expect that companies with "projects" that have been stalled by the EPA will be scurrying frantically to hasten their approval through this short loophole.

Couldn't Congress block Bush changes?

 

[ImaginalDisc]

Before anyone comes along and cheers because the Endangered Species act isn't good science (There's solid arguments to be made that it's futile to try to preserve species when it's a part of a larger and more important ecosystem, and management is best focused on ecology, not charismatic megafauna) I feel the ESA is at least a good step in the right direction and should be updated to the ecological science we know now, rather than circumvented entirely.

 

[Tricky]

Couldn't Congress block Bush changes?

It is possible. I infer from the writing that it would take a lot of effort which would derail other activities. Also I have no illusions that Bush is the only politician who has his pockets lined by businesses with "projects" that run counter to environmental concerns. But Bush has more power to effect an immediate change in the way the policies concerning endangered species are enforced. He does not have to deal with a committee.

 

[technoextreme]

Before anyone comes along and cheers because the Endangered Species act isn't good science (There's solid arguments to be made that it's futile to try to preserve species when it's a part of a larger and more important ecosystem, and management is best focused on ecology, not charismatic megafauna)

Actually depending on the animal it's really dam important and in general if one megafauna goes down it's probably going to take others with it.

 

[ImaginalDisc]

Actually depending on the animal it's really dam important and in general if one megafauna goes down it's probably going to take others with it.

We're agreeing. Heroic efforts to protect a single species are worth it when it protects a whole ecosystem, keystone species. Ideally, we should mitigate the impact we have on all species, but who weeps for the plaque of spongy algae that forms such an important part of the Florida Everglades, or the wild flowers of the mid western states that bloom mostly around prairie dog towns? Cyclic controlled burning of fire adapted forests is important, but doesn't have a cute animal spokesman.

The Florida scrub jay is a protected species, but its habitat must be destroyed. Not all of them, just each one over time. They live primarily in areas where the native Florida ecology has recently been disturbed by fire. Those habitats are transitory. Eventually the plant communities give way to slower growing plants, and the area's habitat changes utterly. The ESA "protects" a habitat that is in the process of vanishing all the time, and new succession habitats spring up wherever fire has run its course.

Ecosystem management cannot be ruled chiefly by a politically attractive idea of saving particular species, any more than you could responsibly manage an economy by taking heroic efforts to save jobs in a few sectors and neglecting the rest of how an economy functions.

 

[ZirconBlue]

Obama has said he will reverse the changes, but because they will already be in effect before he takes office, it will have to go through "channels". Also there is the possibility that Congress could block the changes. So I expect that companies with "projects" that have been stalled by the EPA will be scurrying frantically to hasten their approval through this short loophole.

Couldn't Congress block Bush changes?

 

[Beerina]

Before anyone comes along and cheers because the Endangered Species act isn't good science (There's solid arguments to be made that it's futile to try to preserve species when it's a part of a larger and more important ecosystem, and management is best focused on ecology, not charismatic megafauna) I feel the ESA is at least a good step in the right direction and should be updated to the ecological science we know now, rather than circumvented entirely.

• I believe Congress should simply judge the environmental issues of this to be of minor importance, as that far more accurately describes reality than does apoplectic environmental outrage, as good a facade as that is at serving as an election vector.
• Congress should pay for the costs of these investigations and anlysis, rather than the businesses themselves. If the freakin' "people want it", they should pay for it. I heartily encourage making these costs feel like a dagger jabbing them in the butt through the wallet.
• If the analysis takes "too long", however that is defined, the government shall be deemed to have waived the regulation in that case.
• If the analysis, even though it's now re-weighted to give far less weight to environmental issues, still suggests costly changes to the project, or cancellation outright, then again Congress shall pay for the loss. If the people want it...

Having said that, I would not have any weight to it at all, for these reasons:

1. Within the lives of some living, we will be able to custom-design life forms by computer and whip up some DNA and start it growing. Hence species are a quaint anachronism that is actually hurting technological progress due to pointless environmental regulations like this.
2. I am for 30 trillion people on Earth, and the complete Trantorization of Earth, for much the same reason. That many people, in a free society, would be producing advances at rates inconceivable today, much as today's are to people four hundred years ago. The qualilty of life would skyrocket and workarounds to environmental issues would be prodigious and fast.

So to Bush, I say, good! Those regulations are more harmful than helpful.