RADICAL LAWMAKERS PASS BILL TO ALLOW EXTINCTION OF ENDANGERED SPECIES
Thursday, September 22 -
Washington, DC - The House Committee on Resources overwhelmingly approved the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act (TESRA) of 2005 by a bipartisan vote, 26-12. Six Democrats and eight Republicans - including Cathy McMorris, R-Wash. - signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.
H.R. 3824: "To amend and reauthorize the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to provide greater results conserving and recovering listed species, and for other purposes" (http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/issues/more/esa/TESRA/hr3824.pdf).
This bill would do exactly the opposite of what is claimed in the title. It would render the ESA null and void and prevent conserving and recovering listed species. The bill should be called "How to destroy the Endangered Species Act." See below for the "other purposes"
Public education about the value of diverse forms of life and our need for a viable natural world is the fundamental answer to destruction, pollution and desecration of the planet, rather than imposition of regulations. But, as with any moral value, we also need good environmental laws make sure offenders don't spoil things for all of us, and for future generations.
If this bill passes, the Southern Resident Orca Community (J, K and L pods), scheduled for listing under the Endangered Species Act in December 2005, would immediately lose the protection and conservation provided by the ESA, as would the 14 listed salmon runs the whales depend on for their sustenance and survival.
Committee Chairman Richard Pombo said: "This bill will help turn three decades of conflict into real cooperation for species conservation and recovery." Actually, the bill would legitimize the destruction of species and habitat, while creating far more litigation and divisiveness. Just passing such a bill out of committee with a blatantly disingenuous title is a hostile act. Any child can see that the title of the bill and the justifications for it are 180 degrees opposed to the real intent of the bill. This kind of duplicity and cynical disregard for truth debases our social fabric, our morality and our very language. Young people see this obvious dishonesty and assume this is how grownups act, and they learn to lie whenever they want to hide something. Pombo and the supporters this bill are immature and irresponsible.
"Cooperation...conservation...recovery?"
- This bill eliminates the ESA's requirement that critical habitat be designated for endangered species, substituting a provision that only a small part of the important habitats - those that do not stand in the way of developers - may be deemed special enough by the Secretary of Interior, often subject to political pressure, to warrant designation in the recovery plan. In addition, the bill assigns the task of developing recovery plans to industry-dominated "recovery teams" who are not likely to understand the need for habitats.
- The bill would also require the government to pay property owners at fair market value for any loss that results from protecting endangered species. Sounds fair enough on the face of it but the responsible agencies have virtually no budget for such compensation, and if compensation isn't paid, the government could not enforce the act. Thus, congress would simply cease enforcement of the Act on budgetary grounds. If a gravel pit would destroy an essential foraging area used by orcas or salmon, for example, then this bill would require the government to give the owner the market value of the land. Since it is unable to pay for the land, the strip mine would go forward, perfectly legally.
- And the bill would require agencies to make snap judgments within 90 days about whether a project would threaten an endangered species, or the project would become exempt from the ESA. However, judging the effects of a particular project may take much longer than that. NMFS still has not reached consensus about what caused the Puget Sound orca population to decline, or how to address the problems or how future activities might affect them. Determining the impact of a proposed project could take much longer than 90 days. This change alone would essentially give industry and property owners carte blanche to flatten, pave or pollute whole habitats.
- The proposed legislation would politicize the ESA's enforcement with a provision requiring the Interior secretary to define what constitutes the "best available scientific information." Other provisions would make it difficult to block damaging projects or add to the list of 1,370 plants and animals considered threatened or in danger of extinction.
- The "no surprises" rule in the bill, saying that once a project is allowed to go forward there can be no further questions asked, assumes that government agencies will get it right the first time, a level of faith in government not generally warranted. The status of Southern Residents is in flux and the theories about how to help them survive are very difficult to resolve into a coherent strategy. NMFS and Fisheries and Oceans Canada are both still at the draft stage of conservation and recovery plans. A rushed plan that is stacked against the whales (see above), combined with a "no surprises" rule, would allow anyone to destroy habitat with gleeful abandon. Canada requires review of conservation plans every five years.
- A last minute amendment to this bill gave legal immunity to the chemical industry, repealing ESA provisions that protect fish and wildlife from harmful pesticides. This is another of the "other purposes." Pesticides indirectly harm orcas by reducing salmon runs, the whales' primary food source. Other chemicals, such as PCB's and PBDE's need to be addressed more directly, but this bill would set a precedent by saying that some causes of extinction won't be addressed at all, to suit the short term needs of certain favored industries.
The bill is on a fast track for a vote in the House in the next five days, to minimize public attention to its wanton destruction of our natural world. If it passes in the House, it goes to the Senate, which may not support all of it according to some reports, but the bill kills the Endangered Species Act six different ways. The Senate may compromise by allowing some provisions of the bill to pass, any of which would effectively kill the bill, and the president would almost certainly sign it. It is vital to let our representatives in both the house and Senate know that citizens emphatically reject every part of this bill.
Pombo's press release says "I believe the ESA should be enhanced and refocused on its original goal - species recovery." This level of falsehood should be summarily rejected in any democracy. The National Association of Home Builders joins in the deception in their press release, saying: "...protecting the private property rights of the American landowner is not only what is right constitutionally, it is the KEY to increasing our rates of species recovery." The callousness and lack of foresight in these statements is breathtaking.
Put simply, this bill's effect on endangered plants and animals and their critical habitats would erase the protections provided by the Endangered Species Act and allow anyone who can purchase property to wipe out ecosystems. Natural systems depend on rich diversity that includes endangered species like salmon and orcas. This bill declares that the diverse forms of life that weave the tapestry of the natural world, that is, the foundation of life on earth, is unimportant and can be sacrificed for short term economic gain. While a point by point rebuttal of the bill is needed to refute it, exposing the utter immorality and the deceptive presentation of the bill is what will defeat it.
To contact your congressperson with your objections to this bill, go to: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt?command=congdir
And simply type in your zip code.
See the National Wildlife Federation's website at: http://www.nwf.org/nwfwebadmin/binaryVault/NWFanalysisH.R.3824amended.pdf for more discussion of this bill. Thanks to the National Wildlife Federation and David Bain for information about this bill.
Howard Garrett
Orca Network
Greenbank WA
(360) 678-3451
www.orcanetwork.org
howard@orcanetwork.org