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Defenders Magazine
Defenders in Action: Drive to Weaken Species Act Moves to Senate
Congress is forging ahead with more attempts to take the teeth out of the Endangered Species Act this spring.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) announced his intention to move a bill through his committee as this issue went to press, but a species-act revision passed by the House last fall casts a dark shadow over the Senate’s work.
The House bill, orchestrated by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), calls for the elimination of habitat protection for endangered species, weakens oversight of federal agency actions and undermines the use of sound science in decision-making about imperiled wildlife. It would also require taxpayers to pay developers not to kill endangered species.
“Although Senator Inhofe is currently in negotiations with Senators Chafee (R-R.I.), Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Jeffords (I-Vt.)—who are all working to maintain a strong Endangered Species Act—if negotiations break down, there’s concern he would move forward with a bad bill,” says Mary Beth Beetham, director of legislative affairs for Defenders. “Senator Chafee has talked about having huge concerns about a ‘Pombo-ized’ Senate bill and frankly we have them, too. If Pombo gets his way, the most important protections of the Endangered Species Act will be gutted and developers will get a blank check from taxpayers to boot.”
Meanwhile, Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) introduced a separate Endangered Species Act revision late last year to the Senate’s Finance Committee that pays lip service to encouraging landowners to conserve endangered species on private land. Instead, it actually provides large tax breaks to developers and eliminates habitat protections. Conservationists are also concerned about provisions in this bill that would allow the Secretary of the Interior to disregard court rulings that order the protection of endangered species.
“Although there seems to be a real desire in the Senate to move forward with bipartisan legislation, because the Senate bill must ultimately be reconciled with the reckless Pombo bill, it makes any acceptable outcome seem highly unlikely,” says Beetham. “Defenders continues to urge Senate members to move carefully and deliberately in their consideration of this landmark wildlife protection law.”
To learn more, see www.saveesa.org.
