Full time employment for lawyers...
Posted on 02/09/2006 4:56:45 AM PST by FerdieMurphy
Congress is going through the process of trying to fix the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Why do they think it needs fixing? Because, quite simply, the ESA is the worst law ever to be enacted by Congress.
For thirty two years the ESA has taken control of private land out of the hands of the owners in the name of protecting endangered species. Yet, the ESA is actually responsible for the destruction of whole industries and the towns they supported, as lumber mills are shut down for lack of cut trees. Farmers and ranchers have lost vital grazing land. Urgently needed minerals are left in the ground and imported from foreign countries because the ESA blocks mining efforts.
The ESA has become a very powerful tool, used by radical environmentalists who want to stop literally any use of certain lands for any purpose. They have made up endangered species like the Spotted Owl, which actually flourishes throughout the Northwestern part of the nation. Environmentalists have used the ESA to block the building of hospitals and airports, always claiming to find an obscure sand flea or snail darter buried somewhere in the sand. Los Angeles International Airport urgently needs to build new runways, but environmentalists claim the108 acre plot of land is home to the Riverdale fairy shrimp that sometimes live in swampy areas. The entire community of Klamath Falls, Oregon has been literally choked to death as its water supply was shut off to protect a sucker fish that isn’t endangered. The law suits begin. The costs go up. The projects die. Jobs are lost. It happens time after time.
The ESA is also used by industry to hurt its competition. The Surdna Foundation, which was created with money from the timber fortune of the John E. Andrus estate, makes grants in the millions of dollars to a wide array of environmental groups whose sole purpose is to enforce the Endangered Species Act. In one case, documents show that Surdna made grants in excess of one million dollars in “an emergency action to protect forests and save the environment.” As a result of those grants and the actions they paid for, thirty six lumber mills were closed in Northern California, 8,000 loggers lost their jobs, and the price of lumber, now in severe shortage, rose dramatically. Who gained? Surdna, which owns its own timber operation that was left unharassed by environmental legal action. Surdna earned a profit of $2.7 million from the otherwise devastated timber industry.
Yet, all of this pain and suffering is for absolutely nothing, as far as endangered species are concerned. Incredible as it may sound to the average American, in the 32 years since the ESA has been on the books, just 34 of the nearly 1,300 U.S. species listed have made their way off the endangered list. Of this number, 9 species are now extinct, 14 appear to have been improperly listed in the first place, and just 9, (.6% of all species listed) have recovered sufficiently to be delisted. A less than 1% recovery rate proves the ESA does nothing to protect endangered species it just makes special interest groups and the government more powerful.
No law should have this kind of power over a free American people. To believe that Congress has any shot at fixing such a bad law is to also believe in the Easter Bunny. It’s not going to happen. The fix may, in fact, be worse than the original as the radical environmental groups see an opportunity to actually strengthen the law.
Current efforts to fix the ESA are now before Congress. The House has already passed the “Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act (TESRA, HR 3824), sponsored by House Resource Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA). Supporters of the ESA were outraged by TESRA’s efforts to at least provide some compensation to besieged property owners. Consequently, driven by the insistence of the environmental movement, much of the pro-property language has been gutted or watered down. The Senate now has several versions of its own, all worse than the House version. The fact is, the ESA is the holy grail of the environmental movement. It will not allow even a single comma to be changed without all out war.
There is only one valid answer to this outrageous situation. Repeal the ESA and, if necessary, start over. Such a repeal effort has begun. A coalition of national property rights groups led by the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range and the American Policy Center are currently circulating a letter to the Senate calling for repeal of the ESA. A key section of the letter states: “Congress needs to revisit the wisdom of the Founding Fathers who believed the ownership of property must be secured from government intervention for liberty to exist. Take that security away through environmental laws like the ESA, and not only is liberty not secure, it no longer exists. You only have to look at the past 30 years since the enactment of the ESA to see what it has produced the dramatic destruction of property rights and the failure to recover species.”
The coalition already has gained several thousand signatures of property rights activists and property owners. The full letter can be found at www.stewards.us and can be signed on line. More signatures are urgently needed before it is presented to Senate leadership.
As the debate grows and the legislative process gets underway in the Senate, the letter can be key to sending a warning to the Senate that not all Americans are blindly supporting the Endangered Species Act. Americans should not have to suffer under such bad law simply because of a radical political agenda perpetrated by a few powerful special interest groups. Says Margaret Byfield, executive director of Stewards of the Range, “Landowners are tired of losing their land and livelihoods while Congress discusses ways to slow the bleeding.”
In this day, when Americans have come to understand the horrors of widespread government abuse of eminent domain, such as in the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision, we should rightly fear the creation of a new ESA that could best be called Kelo 2.
And that's really saying something. These legislators have legislated freight trains full of paper that have so complicated the lives of Americans that it would take a revolution to un-complicate what these meatheads have wrought.
Laws, good, bad or indifferent, are rarely, if ever repealed.
Full time employment for lawyers...
This affects military training all the time.
Camp Edwards...some sort of endangered box turtle....riiiiiiight.
Makua Valley, HI (live-fire MTC range. Some endangered white tree snail.....riiiiiiiiight.
Critters which are prolly all over the place, but to verify it takes time, effort, and money while the lawyers get rich.
This could be 'THE MAJOR' winning campaign issue for the coming elections if the Republicans play their cards right. Show all of America the destruction of the towns and loss of jobs. How individual property is either taken or deemed worthless. Put real faces in front of a TV camera and let them tell their stories. And then at the end, show some unflattering faces of Algore, Klintoon and a few other DemonRats that were mostly responsible.
With laws like the ADA and Campaing Finance Reform its hard to say the ESA is the worst law ever enacted, but its there among the top thats for sure.
Several years ago, amic triumphant jubilation, it was announced that a lab would build here and hire 10,000 people. Finally, after a long process the county commission approved the proposal. Immediately, enviornmentalists contested the work of Army Corps and got a judge to order more study. Now, apparently Boca Raton is making a better bid. We lose. Does that really sound like enviornmentalism to you? While I am griping, let me say that I really doubt the qualifications of judges to rule on everything from school curricula to enviornmental impact.
No, this isn't a call for anarchy, it's meant to be a kick in the pants to review the massive amounts of federal laws and force Congress to re-evaluate which ones are actually wanted and/or needed.
So, the legislation would repeal all laws that previously existed, but would not stop Congress from passing new laws. This would force Congress to choose which ones to keep or modify, rather than letting them simply exist via inertia. All new laws would automatically sunset after a set period unless specifically renewed. No "omnibus" packages would be allowed; each law would have to be approved and renewed on a separate vote.
“Congress needs to revisit the wisdom of the Founding Fathers who believed the ownership of property must be secured from government intervention for liberty to exist."
Yes. And Congress also needs to take their own brain out of the freezer...
You are in good company, in addition to me. Mark Levin's "Men in Black" regularly rips the blackrobes who, once mere lawyers, miraculously obtain Solomon like wisdom once they don the vestments.
It probably works out to a few million PER fish.
They even re-named it, since the squaw word was considered to be offensive. I can't think of the new name right now, but what a waste !
That's what the preceeding sentence meant. Congress and brain are oxymorons as most congressrats are morons.
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