President Bush signs Wetlands ActPosted on 01/09/2003 7:03:56 PM PST by Uncle Bill
President Bush signs Wetlands Act
The Democrat.com
By James L. Cummins
January 7, 2002
President George W. Bush recently signed into law the reauthorization of the North American Wetlands Conservation Act. It's purpose is to encourage voluntary partnerships among public agencies and the private sector to conserve North American wetland ecosystems. It establishes an infrastructure and provides a source of funding to accomplish that end. The Act funds the protection, restoration, management and enhancement of a wetland ecosystem to benefit wetland-dependent wildlife.
According to President Bush, "Today we take important action to conserve North America's wetlands, which will help keep our water clean and help provide habitat for hundreds of species of wildlife. Through this legislation, the federal government will continue its partnership with landowners, conservation groups and states to save and improve millions of acres of wetlands. The North American Wetlands Conservation Reauthorization Act shows our concern for the environment and our respect for future generations of Americans. "With this signature today, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act will be reauthorized for five years. The law authorizes federal money to match donations from sportsmen, state wildlife agencies, conservationists and landowners. Since 1991, more than $462 million in federal grants have helped to encourage $1.3 billion in contributions from others."
"Together these funds have restored streams and rivers, re-established native plants and trees, acquired land that is home to more than a third of America's threatened and endangered species. Because about 75 percent of the wetlands are held privately, we need to encourage cooperation with our landowners. This legislation shows that when government, landowners and conservationists work together, we can make dramatic progress in preserving the beauty and the quality of our environment." Bush also thanked the Congress for supporting this legislation.
Proposed projects are ranked by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's North American Wetlands Conservation Council. Selected, prioritized proposals are recommended to the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission for consideration of funding. Membership consists of the Secretary of the Interior, who serves as Chairman; the Secretaries of Transportation and Agriculture; two Members of the Senate (one is Senator Thad Cochran); and two Members of the House of Representatives. The Commission is authorized to approve, reject or reorder the priority of the proposed projects.
Bush Administration Keeps Clinton Wetlands Rule
Bush Supports Clinton Land Grab
Cooked Climate Numbers - Thomas Sowell
Limbaugh excoriates Bush on global warming
George W. Algore (Say's Rush Limbaugh, Political issue for leftists)
LIMBAUGH RIPS BUSH WHITE HOUSE OVER GLOBAL WARMING 'FLIP-FLOP'
Rush: Fleischer Flips Back, White House Realigns With EPA Warning Report
Is he now Global Warming Bush? - Cal Thomas
White House defends U-turn on global warming
U-TURN: BUSH ADMIN OUTLINES 'GLOBAL WARMING' EFFECTS ON AMERICA; ACKNOWLEDGES DAMAGE
BUSH DISMISSES OWN ADMINISTRATION REPORT ON 'WARMING'
Bush Administration Blames Humans for Global Warming
Press Briefing - June 5, 2002
"Q Ari, if I could change subjects for a second. This morning you said that the President quoted a speech, indicating that the President believes that human activity is largely responsible for the increase in greenhouse gases. But I'm wondering if he also agrees with an EPA report which indicated that human activity is likely the cause of global warming?
MR. FLEISCHER: Let me just read from the President's statement of June 11th on global warming, and let me read from the recent report the EPA submitted to the United Nations. And I think you'll hear that on the key issues, they really sound very, very similar. This is the President on June 11th in the Rose Garden, in a speech where he announced his global warming policies.
"Concentration of greenhouse gases, especially C02, have increased substantially since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. And the National Academy of Sciences indicate that the increase is due in large part to human activity." That's the President himself speaking.
Here is from the report, page 4, that was just submitted to the United States by the EPA: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as the result of human activities, causing global mean surface temperature and subsurface ocean temperature to rise. While the changes observed over the last several decades are due most likely to human activities, we cannot rule out that some significant part is also a reflection of natural variability." And I think what you're hearing is the same thing.
Q I'm glad you make the connection explicitly, since the President addressed greenhouse gases, but not specifically global warming. Does the President agree with the conclusion that human activity is likely the cause of global warming?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's what the President said in his speech in June.
Q That's not exactly what he said. He does agree with it?
MR. FLEISCHER: When the President cites the National Academy of Science as saying that the National Academy of Science indicates that the increase is due in large part to human activity, I don't know how the President could say it more specifically than that.
Q He hasn't changed his mind at all?
MR. FLEISCHER: No. Here's -- the bottom line for the President is, number one, he has made a proposal that he believes is a proposal that not only can reduce the problem of greenhouse gases and global warming, but also protects the American economy, so the American economy can lead the world in technological and scientific advances that also have an effect in reducing pollution.
The President has said, citing the National Academy of Sciences, that the increase is due in large part to human activity. The President has also continued, citing both, now this report the EPA has sent to the United Nations, previous evidence from the National Academy of Sciences, that there's uncertainty -- and the recent report notes that there is considerable uncertainty. That's the state of science, and the President agrees with it. I don't think people dispute that.
Q Its uncertainty, but he can still draw that conclusion, that --
MR. FLEISCHER: He didn't June 11th.
Q He didn't exactly do it, but you're saying it now.
MR. FLEISCHER: Again, when the President cites a report by the National Academy of Sciences that indicates the increase is due in large part to human activity, I think you have two reports that are very similar.
Q Why was he --
Q Why did he call it the bureaucracy yesterday?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think the EPA issued a report that says the same thing. And I think the President was also reflecting about some of the way it was covered, that made it sound as if the report was somehow inconsistent with what he had said previously.
Q I don't think he reflected at all, he just said that, I saw it put out by a bureaucracy. What did he reflect on?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm sharing with you his insights."
Ari Fleischer Sound Bite
Bush Warms To Climate
The Washington Times
By Greg Pierce
May 21, 1999
Source
Texas Gov. George W. Bush has changed his tune on a key environmental issue, saying he no longer believes there's any question that the globe is warming, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.
"I believe there is global warming," he said at a news conference last week. Mr. Bush had said just a few weeks ago that the "science is still out" on global warming. The governor, who is leading a crowded field of GOP presidential candidates, said his team of advisers had changed his mind.
"The last time I wasn't certain of the science," he said. "I've had some briefings recently and I'm becoming more convinced that the science proves there's global warming."
Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of the liberal consumer and environmental group Public Citizen, welcomed the new position.
"We are delighted that Gov. Bush is acknowledging that global warming is a problem," he said. "We would ask him to take a leadership role since Texas leads the nation in global warming."
But Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy, a conservative group that doubts global-warming theories, says Mr. Bush should take another look.
"We think there's been a lot of questionable and bad science that's been used," said the group's spokeswoman, Peggy Venable.
[End of Transcript]
More Than 15,000 Scientists Speak Out Against Global Warming Myth
Bush decisions rankle conservatives
"And now, a Republican administration will continue and complete the work of a Democratic administration. This is the way environmental policy should work."
George W. Bush - SOURCE
At the moment it would appear to be Bush's bill.
The funding mechanism is the Pittman Robertson Act from the 1930s. The act was self-imposed by hunters and is still supported by hunters today. It is a 12% excise tax on hunting equipment and supplies. You as a taxpayer contribute nothing to the federal portion. The matching funds comes from private groups such as hunting groups, conservation groups, private landowners, etc. State wildlife agencies also qualify for these funds and their funds come mostly from hunters and fishers.
When this was enacted waterfowl were in dire straits. It has been a huge success.
If it doesn't cost you or Uncle Bill anything, what right do you have to complain?
As a hunter and avid outdoorsman, I'm all for protecting the true wildlife refuges, however, when wetlands legislation is extended to protecting slews and mud puddles, I get ticked off.
And, btw, if you want to get real nitpicky, the current state of wetlands legislation can be traced back to the Carter administration with the promulgation of the Clean Water Act of 1977. And if you want to get really really picky, then you can trace this act back Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 enacted under Nixon.
Currently, wetlands administration falls under the Army Corps of Engineers, Federal EPA, state EPAs (not all states have strict regulations, though) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. IMO, in dealing with all these agencies, I've found that the Corps of Engineers is the most level-headed authority. If the government were to take the powers away from the other agencies and concentrate it within the Corps of Engineers then I feel you would have a more even-handed enforcement of the original spirit of the regulations.
This would eliminate those smaller, disconnected areas.
All these things were done in small increments over many years. Undoing them, if possible, will have to be done the same way and the time required will extend beyond Bush's administration.
*I* am one who usually goes orgasmic over Boyd!!! :P~~~~
flamers?? perhaps...but since it would be in the Hobbit Hole using Tolkienese, you prolly wouldn't 'get' most of the comments....
April 11, 2001: WASHINGTON, DC -- President George W. Bush is continuing his assault on the environment, using his budget proposal to muzzle the public's ability to protect endangered species like the Florida black bear. By preventing Americans from getting help from federal courts to protect endangered species and their habitats, President Bush gives Interior Secretary Gale Norton full authority to determine the fate of whether threatened species will go extinct.
"President Bush's actions would gut the Endangered Species Act, our nation's premiere wildlife protection law," said Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's Executive Director. "President Bush's proposal would slam the courthouse door on people working to save treasured animals like Florida's black bear. Americans don't want just one politician giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on whether an animal vanishes from the planet. To save the jaguar, the coho salmon and hundreds of other species, Americans needed independent courts to take politics out of the equation."
While the President's proposal would allow Americans to file suit to protect wildlife, the federal government would not be allowed to spend a dime on enforcing the decisions. Citizen petitions to list endangered species have been a critical tool in adding species to the endangered species list and placing them on the road to recovery. Courts have ordered the Interior Department to protect a number of endangered animals and their habitat, including the jaguar, the coho salmon in the Pacific Northwest, and the California red-legged frog, which gained fame in Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."
If President Bush's policy prevails, other petitioned species awaiting action, such as the Florida black bear, may never receive protection from the Endangered Species Act.
The President's action puts Secretary Norton at odds with previous promises to live by the letter of the Endangered Species Act. That law specifically allows Americans to use the courts to add animals to the Endangered Species List if the Department of Interior fails to act. The President's action rejects the Act's vision for responsible stewardship. In her Senate confirmation hearing on Jan. 19, Norton testified: "The ESA, as I've said, I do support the goals of that. I also want to make clear that I will apply that act as it is written and as the courts have interpreted it." However, the proposed policy would cut the courts and the public out of the process.
In addition, at her hearing, she said: "I will certainly uphold the Endangered Species Act and the concept of preserving endangered species is something that I view as very important. It's one of the responsibilities of the Department of Interior that I will vigorously pursue."
Generally speaking, Bush has requested spending increases from Congress while trying to shift how the money is spent. Increase the portion of money that goes to the states from LWCF. Shifting some of the federal portion of LWCF into private grants such as the Landowners Incentive Program, Private Stewardship Grants, the Co-operative Conservation Initiative which a sizable chunk and came on line this past Oct, as well as others. He has also increased spending on the maintanance backlog. All in all, he has reduced the amount the feds have had to squander. This assesment of his 2003 budget from last spring is accurate.
As for the the EPA he requested and recieved a sizable amount to study global climate change as outlined in the National Academy report from June 01. That money was passed out in Nov to the 5000 scientists at the big pow wow in Washington. Note that that study is being administered by the Dept of Commerce and the White House Office of Enviro Quality.
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