The Interior Secretary with His Pants Down

As I write this, the AP is breaking the story about (and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is putting together an emergency press conference to discuss) the Bush administration's secret plan to repeal the most important sections of the Endangered Species Act. From what we know of the plan, it reprises all of the disdain for science and political trumping of expertise that has characterized previous Bush administration efforts to dismantle fundamental environmental laws. And it sends a clear signal that the administration will spend the rest of its days razing the rules and regulations left standing.

This plan to render the ESA impotent would exclude federal biologists from  decisions about whether a federal project threatens species, and it specifies that if an agency chops its projects into small-enough pieces, then "by definition" the project is so small that it cannot be a threat!

So now Kempthorne is going public. These changes have already been called "illegal" by Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer and hearken back to the early days of the ESA and the National Environmental Policy Act, when agencies routinely claimed their projects wouldn't endanger the environment because each segment of a road would have no impact on air pollution, and no one timber sale would wipe out a species. The courts repeatedly rebuffed these efforts, so Boxer is on strong ground -- and Congress will have a chance to overturn any rule the administration issues while it is in session. But this announcement makes it clear that in the next 100 days the administration will try to do by regulation what it has been blocked from doing for the past eight years.

Comments

[RememberTheAlamo]

Hi Carl,

This seems like a victory for us "little guys". The ESA has the appearance of being misused, to assert the viewpoint of a few upon many . . . and has the appearance of being more political than protective of endangered species.

Sometimes it takes a disruption like this to . . . "shake things up" . . . and get us to focus back upon the base essence of environmentalism . . . which is "balance between man and nature".

Here is an opportunity for reflection . . . does the ESA address the purpose, or has the ESA been diluted, via all the misuse over the years?

There are better ways to protect the endangered species . . . but we first need to ask . . . is it the species or politics which we are seeking to advance?

By the tone of the comments, it would appear endangered species, once again, take a back seat to politics.

Do advise!

[lisak2008]

I think Interior waited too late to get this done before Bush & Co leave office. First, won't the public have a chance to comment on these new regs - probably 60 - 90 days? So, depending on when Interior publishes them in the Federal Register, we're looking at the comment period closing in about October - November. Second, I think Interior will be so innundated with comments on the changes from all of the enviro groups (and there are PLENTY of them), other concerned citizens, and pro and con business entities that it will probably take them another two months (at best) to get through the comments - which will be about December - January (even though Interior hardly ever moves that quickly). Then, they have to re-publish them for another 45 days before they can go final, which is mid- to late January or February. Third, if Interior miraculously gets final regs published before Bush & Co leave, President Obama can issue the same directive Bush did when he first came to office to stop all of Clinton's last minute reg changes from going into effect. Finally, Center for Biological Diversity, EarthJustice, Sierra Club, NRDC, PEER, Forest Guardians, Defenders of Wildlife, etc. will file so many lawsuits to stop these changes that these regs will never see the light of day. So, I don't think we should be too worried about Bush & Co's latest efforts to further their business interests.

[LeftLeaner]

I always knew politicians had few if any morals but this one has sunk to the deepest depths imaginable.

How could the American public be so stupid "TWICE"??????

and now we're seeing a close contest between Obama and McCain, what is going on here???????

[PuffDragon]

They've been doing this since they got in the door:

I spoke personally to an employee of the Dept of the Interior for 2 hours one time -

This person reported seeing BushCo having gone in and made subtle but profound changes to environmental laws, rendering observance and enforcement "optional".

We will need an army to review all the paperwork BushCo have mangled over the past 8 years.

[oldpotsmuggler]

BUSHCO will lob a few softballs at The E.S.A. Then you guys will go to court and get things set back on track. The civil service side of the government will resist much of this crap, Obama will put actual qualified people back into the environmental agencies who will get all of the regs tuned back up to full strength. Backing all of this up will be the most heavily Dem dominated legislature for a very long time (because the necks have just plane run their course for this cycle) and we'll even get a step or two of true progress under our belts.

After that does complacency return and we have a pendulum moving backwards again? That's where the real focus needs to be while there's still enough time to do some actual long term planning on things.

[FrictionSoul]

But the Dems are heavily dominated by corporations. It's called fascism. We're living it now.

[Fez]

"Piecemealing" has been around as long as NEPA (1968). To my knowledge, there has never been a full blown EIS that did not approve the "preferred alternative" (i.e., whatever government or industry want to do). Bush has already dismantled the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, and pretty much every other law that provides environmental protection. Congress couldn't overturn a coffee cart at this point. We will have to wait until a Democrat is elected President and then lean on him or her to undo the damage that Bush and his pimps have done over the past 8 years.