The Bush administration is planning to gut the Endangered Species Act before leaving office, according to the Associated Press.

A draft of the proposed changes, obtained by the AP, indicates that the plan would be to utterly remove government-funded scientists from the decision-making process, allowing regulatory agencies to decide for themselves whether a project was dangerous to the protected species or not.

 

Here are the reasons this is disturbing:

1. If we’re not basing these decisions on science, what SHOULD we base them on?
2. Can professional politicians really be trusted with such sensitive decisions?
3. Those agencies aren’t staffed by experts - they’re staffed by cronies (read: horse racers and cronies)
4. If a species is threatened, it should be protected, whether you believe in global warming or not

Well, that’s kind of the point: Bush doesn’t want to believe your science, because it gets in the way of making money, so…he won’t.

Because those important decisions about a species’ health shouldn’t be bogged down in SCIENCE, god forbid!

Because government agencies have never been involved in corruption or corporate favoritism, right?

See:

They would accomplish through rules what conservative Republicans have been unable to achieve in Congress: ending some environmental reviews that developers and other federal agencies blame for delays and cost increases on many projects.

And why go to such lengths? Because of global warming, of course! Those granola-crunching, hair-locking, patchouli-scented hippies (read: science) are trying to use the Endangered Species Act to prove Global Warming exists! And we won’t let them! Here’s how it works:

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said late Monday that the changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act not be used as a “back door” to regulate the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.

The draft rules would bar federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats.

I can’t imagine the Democrats will just let this stand, but Congress isn’t entitled to a vote on the matter and would need to come up with a creative way to block the changes or hope Barack Obama wins the Presidency and can reverse the process.

photo by michele hayslett

Source: NYTimes

Technorati Tags: bush, president, endangered species, environment, global warming, oil, politics, conservation

 

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