(*ITOTD = Inconvenient Truth of the Day)

The Bush administration is proposing major (and deeply terrifying) changes changes to the Endangered Species Act. The plan would would allow federal agencies unprecedented degree of discretion to decide on their own- without ANY supervision- if their activities are harmful endangered species and the environment.

Seriously?!

Well,  Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne stands by this plan:   “The existing regulations create unnecessary conflicts and delays.”  I can see why it is annoying to waste time on protecting animals.

“We need to focus our efforts where they will do the most good,” Kempthorne added. “It is important to use our time and resources to protect the most vulnerable species. It is not possible to draw a link between greenhouse gas emissions and distant observations of impacts on species.”

Hmm… Really? In May, the polar bear became the first species declared as threatened because of climate change.

Other reactions include Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., the chairman of the House committee (that oversees the Interior Department),  said he was “deeply troubled.” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., head of the Senate’s environment committee, said Bush’s plan was “illegal”

John Kostyack, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Conservation and Global Warming initiative: “If adopted, these changes would seriously weaken the safety net of habitat protections that we have relied upon to protect and recover endangered fish, wildlife and plants for the past 35 years.”

Read more from the Environmental News Network
takepart with the World Wildlife fund

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