Last week, minutes after Bush moved to cripple the Endangered Species Act through new rules that would drive species extinct, the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit in San Francisco federal court to strike down the regulations. Along with our allies, we asked the court to protect endangered plants and animals by nullifying Bush's policies as quickly as possible.
Here's what the new rules will do, if they're allowed to stand: exempt greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, oil and gas drilling, and other harmful developments from the Endangered Species Act. Having just listed the polar bear and two Florida corals as endangered species due to global warming in response to Center lawsuits, the Bush administration is trying to handcuff federal regulators and the law by preventing actions needed to save these and other endangered species.
The new rules would also exempt tens of thousands of logging, mining, road building and development projects from Endangered Species Act review. The Bush policy knocks independent scientific review out of the process and lets the agencies that want to log and mine police themselves. In its typical denial and abuse routine, the Bush administration ignored the fact that this policy has already been tried and failed. In timber sales exempted from scientific review between 2004 and 2005, a full 68 percent violated the Endangered Species Act, harming spotted owls, salmon, and other species.
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