*** After today, BushGreenwatch takes a holiday. We will resume publishing on Jan. 5. ***
The Endangered Species Act turns 30 on Dec. 28, but the Bush Administration doesn’t appear to be celebrating the occasion.
In fact, the Administration is the first since Richard Nixon signed the bill into law in 1973 to refuse to list a single species under the act, except under court order, an analysis by the Center for Biological Diversity finds. [1]
An average of 32 species were listed annually under President Reagan; 58 under George H.W. Bush; 65 under Clinton; but only eight under the Bush Administration, according to a Defenders of Wildlife report this month.[2] Defenders President Rodger Schlickeisen said all new species listed under the Bush Administration have been the result of court orders.
The Defenders report examined 120 legal cases under the Endangered Species Act in which the Bush Administration has been a party and found that the White House has engaged in "a clear pattern of illegal acts, rigged science and flagrant disregard of court orders."
The report found that:
· In 76 cases, Bush Administration attorneys argued contrary to standing judicial interpretations of the ESA; in 68 of these cases – 90 percent – the court found that the Administration had violated the ESA.
· Since taking office, six of the seven listing petitions on which the Administration has decided to act are industry pleas to delist or downlist endangered species. In response to industry lawsuits, the Bush Administration has agreed to revoke critical habitat designations for 29 species listed as threatened or endangered, often in sweetheart legal settlements.
The Bush Administration is also the first in the history of the Endangered Species Act to outsource endangered species reviews to private contractors, rather than leave them to Fish and Wildlife Service biologists. In September 2003, the Administration announced that it was hiring two private businesses – paying them $764,000 – to determine whether two Pacific Northwest species – the northern spotted owl and the marbled murrelet – should continue to receive federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.[3] Protection for the two species has been vigorously criticized by industry for putting restrictions on old-growth logging in the Northwest.
###
SOURCES:
[1] Defenders of Wildlife Report, "Sabotaging the Endangered Species Act," December 2003
[2] Ibid.
[3] U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service press release, Sept. 26, 2003
