[BCNnet] BCNnet: Endangered Species Act Action Alert

[Birdchris at aol.com]

ACTION ALERT: Act NOW to Save the  Endangered Species Act 
Immediate Action Needed:   
The Obama Administration has until  May 11 to reverse last-minute Bush era 
regulations changes that weaken the  Endangered Species Act. Write or call 
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar  today and demand that he restore the 
Endangered Species Act to its full  strength. 
Call Secretary Salazar at  202/208-3100 during business hours. Send an 
e-mail letter (see a sample letter  below) to feedback at ios.doi.gov. Send a 
printed letter to  
Secretary Ken  Salazar 
Department of the  Interior 
1849 C Street,  N.W. 
Washington DC 20240 
Sample  letter 
Your Name and address 
The Honorable Ken Salazar,  Secretary 
U.S. Department of the  Interior 
1849 C Street,  N.W. 
Washington, D.C, 20240 
Date 
Dear Secretary  Salazar: 
I am writing to ask that you restore  the Endangered Species Act, as 
amended, to its full strength before May 11 to  protect America’s rarest plant and 
animal species.   
In December 2008, the Bush  Administration authorized a rule change which 
altered the Endangered Species Act  regulations to eliminate the requirement 
that Federal agencies must consult with  the federal government’s two most 
scientifically qualified agencies – the U.S.  Fish and Wildlife Service and 
the National Marine Fisheries Service - about the  potential impact their 
activity may have on federally-listed Threatened and  Endangered (T&E) Species. 
 
Further, a rule was passed in  January which limited protection given to 
Polar Bears under the Endangered  Species Act to less than the level offered 
by its 'Threatened' status, including  permitting drilling offshore in the 
bear’s fragile Arctic environment.   
Earlier this year, President Obama  called a halt to the immediate 
enactment of the Endangered Species Act changes  and charged your agency to assess 
these issues.  Congress gave you until May 11 to drop  the new regulations 
and to restore the Endangered Species Act to full  strength. 
I urge you to do the RIGHT thing and  restore the Endangered Species Act to 
its full powers and to repeal the rule  that denies Polar Bear full 
Threatened species  protections. 
Yours sincerely, 
Your Name 
Background Information on the  Endangered Species Act: 2009 and Beyond 
2008:  The Bush Extinction  Plan 
In December, the Bush Administration  altered the Endangered Species Act 
through regulatory changes made by U.S.  Department of the Interior (DOI) that 
strip protections for America’s rarest and most imperiled  animals, fish 
and plants. 
DOI received more than 250,000  comments opposing the rule changes.  
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  and the National Marine Fisheries 
Service recommended rule changes to the  Endangered Species Act of 1973, as 
amended, that purported to streamline the  consultation process required under 
Section 7 of the Act.  
The new rule allows federal agencies  to decide for themselves whether 
their actions would negatively impact a  Threatened or Endangered Species (T&E) 
or adversely modify its critical  habitat.  
The changes would eliminate the  current requirement that federal agencies 
consult with the U.S.’s two most scientifically qualified  agencies – the 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries  Service - 
about the potential impact their activity may have on a  federally-listed 
species.  
Prior to the rules change, the  independent consultative process was “
designed to figure out how a project can  move forward without harming a species 
at risk of disappearing forever,” said  Jon Hunter, policy director of the 
Endangered Species Coalition, an ally of the  Sierra Club.  
“The new rule takes decision-making  on Threatened and Endangered Species 
listings out of the hands of scientists and  wildlife professionals at 
agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,  and instead puts those 
decisions in the hands of agencies working on projects  that may be adversely 
affected by a listing,” said Carl Pope, executive director  of the Sierra Club 
in a statement after the proposed rule changes were made  public in the 
Federal Register.  
The press in reporting on the issue last  summer noted that the rule 
changes were written by the U.S. Solicitor General’s  office, not scientists and 
administrators of either the U.S. Fish and Wildlife  or the National Marine 
Fisheries Service.  
For example, the rules now permit  the U.S. Department of Transportation to 
decide whether a listed species'  habitat would be compromised by a highway 
project, rather than trained  biologists from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife 
Service. 
In what the U.S. Department of the  Interior characterized as an effort to 
make endangered species considerations  “less contentious” between federal 
agencies and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife and  National Marine Fisheries 
Service and “to provide greater clarify and certainty  to the consultation 
process,” the rule changed the definition of “cumulative  impact” on a species.  
The new regulation would permit a  federal agency to break up its projects 
into smaller pieces and assess how each  of those phases impacts a listed 
species, rather than the whole project. For  example, the new rule does not 
require the U.S. Department of Transportation to  consider whether a completed 
road would present a cumulative impact in the form  of road injuries and 
deaths for Endangered or Threatened species.   
Most alarming to many conservation  activists these days, the new 
Endangered Species Act regulation “reinforces the  Services’ current view that there 
is no requirement to consult on greenhouse gas  emissions’ contribution to 
global warming and its associated impacts on listed  species.” 
The new rule redefines the  “essential causes” that might harm an 
Endangered species resulting from a  project of a federal agency. The revisions make 
explicit that while the impact  of tailpipe emissions (from a new highway) 
on local air pollution could be an  effect of the action, the greenhouse gas 
emissions’ contribution to global  warming and associated impacts to listed 
species are not and the effects of  those impacts would not need to be 
considered in any  consultation. 
According to the Intergovernmental Panel  on Climate Change, global warming 
threatens up to one-third of all species on  earth with extinction. It is 
irresponsible of the U.S. government to shirk its  responsibility in 
requiring that its federal agencies assess the global warming  impact of their 
actions on Threatened and Endangered Species.   
Across the U.S., climate change is already  impacting humans and their 
wildlife through hotter summer temperatures and more  violent storms. The last 
thing the humans and the threatened and endangered  species that live across 
the U.S. in national forests, state and  local parks, agricultural lands and 
in urban and suburban areas need is the  blatant disregard of the U.S. 
government when it comes to the  impact of federal projects.  
Especially vulnerable to global  warming climate impacts, the Polar Bear 
was listed as a Threatened species in  May 2008, but another Bush Extinction 
Plan rules change passed in January  reduces its protection under the ES Act 
because it permits drilling in the Polar  Bears’ fragile Arctic habitat.  
The Sierra Club and many of its  allies in the environmental community 
submitted comments opposing the U.S.  Department of the Interior’s proposals to 
weaken the Endangered Species Act.  Soon after the rules were finalized, the 
Sierra Club and other environmental  groups engaged in legal action 
regarding the changes because they violate the  requirements of the ESA.  
2009: Urgent Action Needed.   
There is a short window of  opportunity to stop what many wildlife 
conservationists call The Bush Extinction  Plan.  
On Inauguration Day, Jan. 20,  President Obama said his Administration 
would freeze all regulatory changes made  by the Bush Administration in its last 
days. The President charged Interior, the  USFWS and other agencies to 
examine the new Endangered Species Act and Polar  Bear protection regulations.  
On March 11, President Obama signed  the Omnibus Appropriations Bill (HR 
1105) which included an amendment that gave  the administration 60 days to 
drop the Endangered Species Act rule changes and  to give the Polar Bear full 
protection as a Threatened species.   
That gives President Obama and  Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar until 
May 11 to do the RIGHT thing by  restoring the Endangered Species Act to 
full strength and to protect the Polar  Bear to the full extent of the law.  
Take Action:   
It’s time you expressed your  opinion! Tell Secretary to save the Polar 
Bear and other Threatened and  Endangered Species by killing the Bush 
Extinction Plan.  Modify the sample letter and make it  your own. Tell Secretary 
Salazar how much you care about the future of American  endangered species and 
all wildlife. 
Call Secretary Salazar at  202-208-3100 during business hours. Send an 
e-mail letter (see a sample letter  above) to feedback at ios.doi.gov. Send a 
printed letter to  
The Honorable Ken Salazar,  Secretary 
U.S. Department of the  Interior 
1849 C Street,  N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20240 

**************Great deals on Dell’s most popular laptops – Starting at 
$479 
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220631252x1201390195/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B213968550%3B35701427%3Bh)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://screamer.ece.iit.edu/pipermail/bcnnet/attachments/20090415/ed441225/attachment-0001.html