Endangered Species Act rewrite passed by House

ap on San Diego Union Tribune ^ | 9/29/05 | Erica Werner - ap

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON – The House on Thursday passed legislation that could greatly expand private property rights under the environmental law that is credited with helping keep the bald eagle from extinction but also has provoked bitter fighting.

By a vote of 229-193, lawmakers approved a top-to-bottom overhaul of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, perhaps the nation's most powerful environmental law. The law has led to contentious battles over species such as the spotted owl, the snail darter and the red-legged frog.

The rewrite faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Republican Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, head of the panel that oversees the law, has expressed concerns about the House bill.

The bill would require the government to compensate property owners if steps to protect species thwarted development plans. It also would make political appointees responsible for some scientific determinations and would stop the government from designating "critical habitat," which limits development.

The changes were pushed through by the chairman of the House Resources Committee, GOP Rep. Richard Pombo. The California rancher contends the current rules unduly burden landowners and lead to costly lawsuits while doing too little to save plants and animals.

"You've got to pay when you take away somebody's private property. That is what we have to do," Pombo told House colleagues. "The only way this is going to work is if we bring in property owners to be part of the solution and to be part of recovering those species."

Many Democrats and moderate Republicans said Pombo's bill would eliminate important protections for species and clear the way for large handouts from the government to property owners.

The bill sets a "dangerous precedent that private individuals must be paid to comply with an environmental law," said Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, the committee's top Democrat.

"What's next? Paying citizens to wear seat belts? ... This bill will not improve species' ability to recover," he said.

A White House statement on Thursday supported the bill. But it noted that payments to private property owners could have a "significant" impact on the budget.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that those payments would run less than $20 million a year. The bill's opponents predicted a much higher total.

The Fish and Wildlife Service says there are 1,268 threatened and endangered plants and animals in the United States. About a dozen have gone off the list over the years after they were determined to have recovered; nine have become extinct.

Just this week, a toad that environmentalists say is being killed off by an invasive fungus that may have originated in Africa is no longer a candidate for protection under the act, the agency said. It said the boreal toad is a subspecies of a toad whose habitat ranges from Alaska to New Mexico.

Pombo's bill would:

–Eliminate critical habitat. That is area now required to be designated when a species is listed and is protected from adverse actions by federal agencies. Instead, "recovery plans" for species, including designation of habitat, would have to be developed within two years. The recovery plans would not have regulatory force and the habitat would not be protected from federal actions.

–Specify that landowners with development plans are due answers from the interior secretary within 180 days, with a 180-day extension possible, about whether the development would harm protected species. If the government fails to respond in time, the development could go forward. If the government blocks the development, the landowner would be paid the fair market value of the proposed development.

–Give the interior secretary the job of determining what constitutes appropriate scientific data for decision-making under the law.

An alternative from a group of Democrats and moderate Republicans would have strengthened the recovery plans, eliminated the payments to landowners for blocked developments and created a scientific advisory board to assist the interior secretary. The proposal failed by a 216-206 vote.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the Net: Endangered Species Act: www.fws.gov/endangered/esa.html

[NormsRevenge]

Too bad this doesn't cover heterosexuals too.

Next session. ;-)

[NormsRevenge]

Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater, second from left, answers a question concerning a measure to revise the Endangered Species Act, that he and Congressmen Greg Walden, R-Oregon, left, George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, second from right, and Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, right, introduced, during a Capitol news conference held in Sacramento,Calif., Monday, Sept. 19, 2005. Calling it the Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005, the authors say the measure will eliminate endless lawsuits filed over the ESAand work to improve populations so that species can be removed from the endangered list. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

[Southack]

Outstanding!

[tet68]

The bill sets a "dangerous precedent that private individuals must be paid to comply with an environmental law," said Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, the committee's top Democrat.

Oh, the horror!!!

[NormsRevenge]

Not good enough FoR
Breaking tho, at least not for long. ;-)


Let's hope the EPA finally gets sent packing as well

[NormsRevenge]

YoYo
Breaking News

:)

[alloysteel]

There has been a sea change in Washington, and the strong undercurrents are running the other way....

We may yet drill for oil in Alaska. There is already renewed interest in tapping into resources all along our continental shelf.

[w1andsodidwe]

The bill sets a "dangerous precedent that private individuals must be paid to comply with an environmental law," said Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, the committee's top Democrat.

"What's next? Paying citizens to wear seat belts? ... This bill will not improve species' ability to recover," he said.

How is paying to people to wear seat belts comparable to paying people when you take land away from the owners control to save some toad?

[NormsRevenge]

legislation that could greatly expand private property rights ..

Now who would ever support such a thing?

Obviously not dems and special interests whose agenda is to bring this nation to its knees and bow to those who control the Red&GReen movement.

[hombre_sincero]

Endangered Species Act: Endangers Homo Sapien


ESA Reform Bill [TESRA - H.R. 2834] Is A Step Backward
James Buchal - September 23, 2005

The latest attempt to reform the Endangered Species Act (the Act), H.R. 3824, titled "The Threatened and Endangered Species Reform Act," or TESRA, contains positive features.

However, this bill would make Section 7 of the Act even worse. This Section of the Act looms above all others for the carnage it has caused throughout the West.

Section 7 of the Act declares that federal agencies must avoid taking action that would "jeopardize the continued existence of listed species."

Lawsuits filed under Section 7 are responsible for exterminating small timber operators (owls), Klamath Basin farmers (suckers), doubling electricity rates in the Pacific Northwest (salmon), and creating countless other poster children for Endangered Species Act reform.*

Once upon a time, the meaning of "jeopardize the continued existence of" was clear: Congress wanted to make sure that agencies did not exterminate a listed species.

If an agency did wish to take action that would do so, the agency would have to get an exemption from the "God Squad."

It was called the "God Squad" because the premise was that, if an exemption were given, the species would be exterminated. Other parts of the Act call for recovery plans for listed species, but Congress wisely recognized that some federal actions might have to proceed -- whether or not they impeded the recovery of listed species.

Pombo's bill changes Section 7 by adding a definition of "jeopardize the continued existence of" to the Act:

"The action reasonably would be expected to significantly impede, directly or indirectly, the conservation in the long-term of the species in the wild."

This is a radical departure from the simple concept of not wiping species off the face of the earth.

Under H.R. 3824, any and all federal agency actions must now cease if they are deemed to "significantly impede" "conservation" -- even "indirectly".

From a definition already in the Act, we know that "conservation" means "the use of all methods and procedures which are necessary to bring any endangered species or threatened species to the point at which the measures provided pursuant to this Act are no longer necessary."

In other words, "conservation" means doing everything necessary to fully recover listed species to the point where they can be removed from the list of protected species.

If the Pombo bill passes, the question will no longer be whether federal agencies threaten to exterminate an entire species; the question will be whether or not what they do is would "directly or indirectly" impede the conservation programs of the fish and wildlife agencies.

In a context where those agencies are infested with biologists who are eager to spend countless dollars to save a single fish or rodent, almost any use of public resources (other than paying said biologists) can -- and will be -- characterized as "significantly impeding" conservation.

The inevitable result of Pombo's bill is that environmentalists will have a much more powerful tool for shutting down any federal agency action with which they disagree.

To make matters worse, the Pombo bill removes the "God Squad" from the Act entirely, so that now -- when federal judges issue crazy Endangered Species Act injunctions http://www.buchal.com/salmon/news/nf84.htm -- the people of the United States will be utterly powerless to stop them through their elected representatives.

It is true that we haven't elected anyone with the courage to actually convene the God Squad in a long time, but why on earth would anyone remove this safety valve from the Act?

Representative Pombo and Walden may not have fully considered the implications of their changes, but the meager benefits of their bill pale beside the larger harm these problems promise.

If this is an innocent mistake, they should be willing to revise the bill to remove these changes to Section 7.

If not, the bill should be killed on the floor.

---

*Almost none of these animals were genuinely endangered, and Pombo's bill does nothing to solve the fundamental problem of bogus listings. Indeed, the bill arguably makes it harder to get rid of bogus listings -- because "fundamental error" may now be required instead of mere "error."

You have permission to reprint this article, and are encouraged to do so. The sooner people figure out what's going on, the quicker we'll have more fish in the rivers.

Copyright 2005, James Buchal.

http://www.buchal.com/salmon/news/nf87.htm

Recommended, researched additional reading:

The full text of TESRA, H.R. 2834

http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/issues/more/esa/TESRA/hr3824.pdf

The first Internet location of the leaked TESRA draft (June 28, 2005):

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/Programs/policy/esa/Pombo-summary.pdf

Its press release (same date):

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/pombo6-28-05.html

The first Internet location of the current TESRA bill (September 15, 2005):

Pombo's own section by section analysis of his bill

Its press release (same date):

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/pombo9-15-05.html

The Many Facets of The Endangered Species Act (updated version)

http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/articles6/many_facets_of_the_endangered_sp.htm

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (full text):

http://www.fws.gov/endangered/esa.html

The CITES (Convention on International Trade in Threatened Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) treaty

http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/text.shtml

[NormsRevenge]

THanks! LOL

[Issaquahking]

Hit the ping lists! America may be starting to awaken! Perhaps the return of common sense is trying to make a comeback, and that reality may be just that!

Enviro-whacks go home!!!

The adults are in motion now.

[goldstategop]

To the Left, only the government can protect the environment. Private property owners are viewed as an obstacle to keeping the earth green. In reality, the goal is socialism. The government owns and manages "the commons" for the benefit of the elite.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[ncountylee]

"helping keep the bald eagle from extinction"

This is another big lie. There are places in British Columbia and Alaska that bald eagles are so plentiful that they are almost pests. There is zero threat of extinction.

[NormsRevenge]

I saw a few on our cruise earlier this month, we never got to close to land and recall seeing not so mnay years ago on another trip there, quite a few whales too.. not that I am advocating whaling , mind you.

[Carry_Okie]

There are many important improvements in this bill. There are also some serious problems.

Endangered Species Act [TESRA - HR 2834] A Step Backward

[konaice]

The bill sets a "dangerous precedent that private individuals must be paid to comply with an environmental law," said Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, the committee's top Democrat.

Typical Democrat thinking:

We can do anything to you as long as we attribut it to protecting the environment, or saving the children, or some other sob-story cause. Why take property and compensate when you can just prevent any use and still collect taxes on it?

[GladesGuru]

The Endangered Species Act is an UnNatural Act. So is the Wilderness Act. Both are based upon faulty premises.

The Endangered Species Act attempts to outlaw extinction. But over 99% of all species that have ever existed are extinct, and the extinction process will go on - Endangered Species Act or no Endangered Species Act.

As for the other of the Two Great UnNatural Acts, the Wilderness Act - conditions defined as "wilderness" haven't existed in North America since at least the Quaternary Extinctions some 11,000 years ago.

America was fire managed and hunted by the indigenous peoples for at least that long.

For Congress to attempt to mandate "wilderness" management is like mandating management for unicorns. Both unicorns and "wilderness" are equally mythical.

Fortunately, across America, the citizenry is getting more and more "mythed off" each day.

Pombo and the conservatives must not attempt to either walk on water of 'fix' the unfixable.

Remove the Endangered Species Act from the law books.

Do the same with the Wilderness Act.

[hattend]

BTTT

[AmericanArchConservative]

Return of common sense to public policy PING!

Socking it to the greenweenies!

A.A.C.