Do the Endangered Species Face new Rules to protect their habitats?
Parts of the Endangered Species Act may soon be extinct. The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants. New regulations, which don’t require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years, according to a draft first obtained by The Associated Press. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said late Monday the changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act would not be used as a “back door” to regulate the gases blamed for global warming. In May, the polar bear became the first species declared as threatened because of climate change. Warming temperatures are expected to melt the sea ice the bear depends on for survival. The draft rules would bar federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and
In late July 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) overhauled key provisions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), scrapping the requirement to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) to determine whether or not use of a pesticide would harm endangered wildlife or habitat. The EPA under the Bush Administration proposed a version of the rule more than a year ago, then revised and reissued the rule jointly with the Wildlife Services (FWS and NOAA) in January 2004. “For years wildlife agencies have been concerned that our nation’s most imperiled species are regularly exposed to harmful pesticides, all of a sudden with the introduction of these new rules they changed their tune,” said Aimee Code, of the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides. (1) The EPA argues that the rule — the Joint Counterpart Endangered Species Act Section 7 Consultation Regulations — will streamline the pesticide re
