Sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), a longtime foe of ESA,
the new legislation is entitled the "Threatened and Endangered
Species Recovery Act," or TESRA. It has triggered a firestorm of
opposition across the entire spectrum of environmental
organizations, who have united in an all-out effort to kill it
in the Senate.

Finding the phrase "Recovery Act" more than ironic, Defenders of
Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen says TESRA "Runs counter
to the very intent of the Endangered Species Act," containing
"provisions that would severely cripple the federal effort to
recover endangered plants and animals." [1]

Environmentalists point out that the ESA through the years has
saved such species as the bald eagle, Florida manatee and the
key deer. If Rep. Pombo's TESRA had been in effect then, not
even the bald eagle would qualify for listing.

Drawing particular alarm is a provision that would end the
protection of critical habitat necessary for the survival and
recovery of plants and animals. Under the current law, areas
designated "essential to the conservation of species" qualify as
"critical habitat" and are subject to federal protection.
Pombo's bill replaces "critical habitat" with a recovery plan
that merely identifies areas that are valuable to the species,
but does not mandate any specific federal protection.

Critics charge that this change takes away the most effective
provision of the ESA. Species that live in designated critical
habitat are twice as likely to survive as those without this
form of protection. [2]

TESRA would also require taxpayers to pay developers and other
landowners to comply with the ESA--in essence paying people not
to break the law. It does this by requiring the Department of
Interior to respond within 180 days to a landowner's request to
implement a development plan; then, if the project is not
permitted, the federal government must pay for any value that is
allegedly lost. This, says Kieran Suckling of the Center for
Biological Diversity, literally "begs developers to plan
projects that allow them to extort money from the government."
[3]

Moreover, while the current ESA requires that all decisions be
based on the "best scientific and commercial information"
available, the Pombo bill removes that authority from scientific
experts and transfers it to Interior Secretary Gale Norton,
whose record consistently favors commercial interests over
environmental protection.

The Pombo bill also eliminates the protection for "threatened"
species, i.e. species not yet considered endangered, but whose
population levels have reached dangerously low levels. [4]

TESRA also makes it extremely difficult to list any species in
the first place. In order for a species to be listed under
TESRA, the Fish and Wildlife Service will have to duplicate and
store all data on habitat decisions in every state in which the
species exists. Environmental groups see this as a way to
"bureaucratize a system that is already working fine." [5]

###

SOURCES:
[1] "Assault on Endangered Species Act: Pombo Moving Legislation
that would Cripple Endangered Species Act," Defenders of
Wildlife, Sept. 19. 2005.
[2] "Pombo's Anti-Endangered Species Bill Leaked Again," Center
for Biological Diversity, Sept. 15, 2005.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.