Posted on 01/14/2011 9:44:13 AM PST by Captain7seas
January 11, 2011
Editorial: It's time for Congress to put Commerce, NOAA chiefs under oath The Gloucester Daily Times Tue Jan 11, 2011, 11:10 PM EST
It may bring some measure of visceral satisfaction for fishermen in Gloucester, New Bedford and across New England to hear Congressman Barney Frank give U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke a verbal pummeling for Locke's refusal to relax draconian federal catch limits.
Frank, in an interview on WBSM AM 1420 in New Bedford, accused Locke of not having the courage to stand up to his subordinates. And, pathetic as it sounds, that clearly seems true.
But at this point, it's also clear that a public scolding isn't going to change anything. It is not going to save the job of a single fisherman.
Simply put, Frank and other members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation need to demonstrate some courage themselves, and demand that Locke and top fishing regulators appear before Congress in hearings that will force them to, under oath, defend policies that are putting fishermen out of business and driving small businesses right into the bottom of the ocean.
Locke had written to Gov. Deval Patrick in October that he was "prepared to issue an emergency regulation to revise catch limits whenever there is both sufficient economic and sound scientific data" to support it.
But Locke, along with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration head Jane Lubchenco and NOAA Fisheries Service head Eric Schwaab, have now rejected pleas from Massachusetts congressmen and Patrick to ease catch limits and the new regulatory system known as "catch shares," contending that neither scientific or economic evidence justify it.
That declaration seems to defy more logic all the time.
It was just the other day, for example, that the recently retired chief scientist at NOAA, Steve Murawski, said in an interview that this year will be a "milestone" because it will mark the end of overfishing by the U.S. commercial fleet.
Indeed, the domestic fishing has already been reduced so drastically that the United States now imports 80 percent of its seafood. And as we noted Monday, Locke's absurd declaration that he will not increased allocations has him — perhaps uniquely among all past commerce secretaries — intentionally expanding that trade deficit at the expense of American small businesses and waterfront jobs.
There are efforts aimed at forcing the change these shameless bureaucrats won't address. Consolidated lawsuits now pending in U.S. District Court brought by fishermen, the cities of Gloucester and New Bedford and other industry representatives, are challenging the imposition of the catch share system.
As part of that suit, the plaintiffs are seeking the right to conduct "discovery" of communications and any collaboration between federal officials and environmental groups such as the Conservation Law Foundation, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Pew Environmental Group in crafting the catch share policy, to see if those groups had any undue influence on what are supposed to be impartial government decisions.
The need for such discovery is obvious. Lubchenco, is a former vice-chairwoman of the EDF board. But CLF is seeking to block that discovery, by filing a brief against it.
That is an affront to justice, and simply must not stand. Locke, Lubchenco, Schwaab and the leaders of these environmental groups should be brought before Congress. They need to be put under oath. And Congress must demand that they explain how this happened, and how it is that clear economic data and the latest scientific evidence that does not comport with the extreme environmental agenda is rejected out of hand.
Catch shares, in which fishermen are encouraged to buy, sell or trade their shares, including to outside investors, will likely either drive out the small businessmen who have been the backbone of the industry, or turn them into sharecroppers working under the thumb of large corporate interests.
That's what Lubchenco and EDF, which has also socked America with its cap-and-trade policy, clearly want — to steer economic control of the fisheries into the hands of the big-bucks corporations that are the enviros' biggest donors.
But it is past time for those in what President Obama promised would be "the most transparent administration in history" to explain publicly how any of this — perpetuated by Locke's chicken rejection of Gov. Patrick's request — is good for jobs, good for small businessmen and, or good for America.
Isn’t this similar to what’s happening to small dairy farms/milk producers?
The only fish frank knows about is a fresh water sucker. He has a lot of knowledge about the sucker.
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