...as well as any democratic rights we thought we still had.
In the next 6 months prior to Bush the younger exiting office, he and everyone in his cabinet are going to try to green-light long term goals and pet projects held dear to them, their contributors and supporters. Paying off favors in the last few months of office is traditional cronyism, and is a NON-PARTISAN activity. Every elected president does it. It's all politics and it is bullshit.
The Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne is particularly egregious in his complete and utter disregard for federal law, endangered species, flora, fauna and seemingly all of nature. He has previously used other administrative loopholes to attempt to exclude several species (think polar bears) from receiving any protections under the Endangered Species Act. When that failed, he broke the law and allowed the sale of drilling rights to oil and gas companies to proceed without oversight in a federally protected environment.
Environmental Agencies such as the NRDC, Biogems and The Center for Biological Diversity teamed up, pooled their limited, donation-based resources and won successful lawsuits and prevented this administration from trampling all over our federal laws. Of course, this hasn't stopped the ongoing attempts to weaken or overwrite the law, current regulations, limit public knowledge and any response time.
The end goal here is to exempt federal activities from any Congressional or independent oversight. Not much different from overwriting the NSA laws about spying and wire-tapping American taxpayers, or EPA laws on clean air and water, but I digress. Let's just say this won't come as a surprise to any thinking person in this country.
Now, since selling all of those illegal drilling rights in February, the pressure is on to find a way to either get the public on the side of the oil and gas companies, or to effectively 'overwrite' the federal protections by creating brand spanking new administrative regulations that, since they are not legislative in nature, won't need the approval of the Congress. It's an ingenious, if underhanded plan. (Cue the moustache twirling.)
And that got me thinking today...isn't it awfully convenient timing that the sale of these drilling rights was directly concurrent with the steep increase in gas prices, and a sudden push by the White House (and certain individuals in Congress) to drill for oil in ANWR? The place in and around where the spaces were sold and leased to the oil and gas companies? Why else would our administrative and congressional leaders be so absolutely sure that the price of gas would drop the moment offshore drilling begins, even though there is no realistic way that could actually happen?
I know some will not agree with me, and that's OK. If you believe that drilling is the answer to our energy crisis, then we can agree to disagree. I have no problem with putting it all on the table, and coming to a collective vote on an energy policy that holds our government accountable to public opinion. The whole point of environmental law is to protect the environment and to prevent any major changes without scientific and congressional oversight. Whatever your personal beliefs are, I think we can agree any new regulations are in need of independent scientific review.
What I want is to get people thinking, speaking, acting. Let's begin a discussion. Isn't our government supposed to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of the needs of big business, creation of new jobs, land rights, energy costs, cheap gas, clean air and water, the protection of endangered species before creating arrogant, dismissive and revisionist regulations that exclude any feedback from US citizens?
The Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne is particularly egregious in his complete and utter disregard for federal law, endangered species, flora, fauna and seemingly all of nature. He has previously used other administrative loopholes to attempt to exclude several species (think polar bears) from receiving any protections under the Endangered Species Act. When that failed, he broke the law and allowed the sale of drilling rights to oil and gas companies to proceed without oversight in a federally protected environment.
Environmental Agencies such as the NRDC, Biogems and The Center for Biological Diversity teamed up, pooled their limited, donation-based resources and won successful lawsuits and prevented this administration from trampling all over our federal laws. Of course, this hasn't stopped the ongoing attempts to weaken or overwrite the law, current regulations, limit public knowledge and any response time.
The end goal here is to exempt federal activities from any Congressional or independent oversight. Not much different from overwriting the NSA laws about spying and wire-tapping American taxpayers, or EPA laws on clean air and water, but I digress. Let's just say this won't come as a surprise to any thinking person in this country.
Now, since selling all of those illegal drilling rights in February, the pressure is on to find a way to either get the public on the side of the oil and gas companies, or to effectively 'overwrite' the federal protections by creating brand spanking new administrative regulations that, since they are not legislative in nature, won't need the approval of the Congress. It's an ingenious, if underhanded plan. (Cue the moustache twirling.)
And that got me thinking today...isn't it awfully convenient timing that the sale of these drilling rights was directly concurrent with the steep increase in gas prices, and a sudden push by the White House (and certain individuals in Congress) to drill for oil in ANWR? The place in and around where the spaces were sold and leased to the oil and gas companies? Why else would our administrative and congressional leaders be so absolutely sure that the price of gas would drop the moment offshore drilling begins, even though there is no realistic way that could actually happen?
I know some will not agree with me, and that's OK. If you believe that drilling is the answer to our energy crisis, then we can agree to disagree. I have no problem with putting it all on the table, and coming to a collective vote on an energy policy that holds our government accountable to public opinion. The whole point of environmental law is to protect the environment and to prevent any major changes without scientific and congressional oversight. Whatever your personal beliefs are, I think we can agree any new regulations are in need of independent scientific review.
What I want is to get people thinking, speaking, acting. Let's begin a discussion. Isn't our government supposed to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of the needs of big business, creation of new jobs, land rights, energy costs, cheap gas, clean air and water, the protection of endangered species before creating arrogant, dismissive and revisionist regulations that exclude any feedback from US citizens?
Read below for content of letter received from the Center for Biological Diversity.
___________________________________
This week Dirk Kempthorne, secretary of the Interior, announced devastating changes to the Endangered Species Act, signaling the end of protection for thousands of imperiled species.
The Center for Biological Diversity is rallying an immense surge of opposition to prevent these changes from taking effect.
Tell Secretary Kempthorne what you think of his plans to pillage the Endangered Species Act.
Under the current regulations, federal agencies must consult with scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine whether a project is likely to harm endangered species or habitat.
The new regulations would:
- Exempt thousands of federal activities from review under the Endangered Species Act;
- Eliminate checks and balances of independent oversight;
- Limit which effects can be considered harmful;
- Prevent consideration of a project's contribution to global warming;
- Set an inadequate 60-day deadline for wildlife experts to evaluate a project in the instances when they are invited to participate -- or else the project gets an automatic green light;
- Enable large-scale projects to go unreviewed by dividing them into hundreds of small projects.
In addition, last week Kempthorne and Bush tried to slip another proposed rule change under the radar that would limit protection of a species only to where it is currently found.
Under the current rule a species has protection in its entire historical range. However many endangered species have lost substantial portions of that range. For example; under the proposed changes, prior to being reintroduced, the California condor would only have been listed in zoos.
And, because these regulations are administrative and not legislative, they won't need the approval of Congress.
And, because these regulations are administrative and not legislative, they won't need the approval of Congress.
_________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment