Free Republic

Habitat protection for the endangered arroyo toad, which lives along slow-moving pools and sandy streams in Southern California, would cost $789 million over 25 years, according to a new analysis by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Most of the costs are expected to occur in new development, primarily in San Diego County, the study shows. The analysis also considered losses from grazing, mining, road construction and utility projects, and possible prices increases for water customers. The financial study was required as part of the agency's proposed designation of 112,765 acres as critical habitat for the small, buff-colored toad with...

In his two years on the appeals bench, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts has authored about 40 opinions, but it's a one-and-a-half page dissent that has Ted Kennedy fulminating. The Senator from Massachusetts is outraged about a Commerce Clause case called Rancho Viejo v. Norton, which, in the Kennedy legal interpretation, threatens "Social Security, Medicare, the minimum wage" and the environment. Is that all? In Rancho Viejo, a real-estate company challenged the Interior Department's application of the Endangered Species Act to halt a project that might disturb an endangered species known as the arroyo Southwestern toad, whose picture we publish...