(USA): Senators question Bush endangered wildlife plan

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Senators question Bush endangered wildlife plan

 

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent Wed Apr 25, 5:58 PM ET

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Bush administration plan to change rules of

the Endangered Species Act protecting American wildlife drew pointed

questions on Wednesday from five U.S. senators, who called the

proposed changes " troubling. "

 

 

The senators posed 15 questions to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne,

asking for full responses within one month, with no forward movement

on rule-making until they are answered.

 

" If the draft revisions had been in place thirty years ago, it is hard

to imagine that we ever could have achieved the successes -- with bald

eagles, grizzly bears, sea turtles, sea otters and many other species

-- of which we now are deservedly proud, " the senators wrote in a

letter to Kempthorne.

 

The letter was signed by independent senators Joseph Lieberman (news,

bio, voting record) of Connecticut and Bernard Sanders (news, bio,

voting record) of Vermont, and Democrats Barbara Boxer (news, bio,

voting record) of California, Frank Lautenberg (news, bio, voting

record) of New Jersey and Benjamin Cardin (news, bio, voting record)

of Maryland.

 

An Interior Department spokesman, Hugh Vickery, said the proposed

rules the senators questioned were part of an old document not now

under consideration. He said the department is looking for

recommendations on how to administer the Endangered Species Act more

consistently.

 

Environmental activists raised alarms about the draft rules change

last month, saying the revisions would weaken the act so much that

about 80 percent of the 1,300 species now on the endangered list would

lose protection.

 

The activists also said government documents they obtained indicate

revisions were being made as recently as February.

 

QUESTIONS

 

Among other things, the lawmakers asked how the proposed changes would

improve wildlife conservation and recovery and which industry or

commercial groups had " input " on them.

 

The National Audubon Society's Mike Daulton criticized the Bush

administration. " The public is clamoring for conservation solutions to

problems like energy and global warming and what they're getting are

half-baked ideas like gutting the Endangered Species Act and shutting

down wildlife refuges, " Daulton said in an e-mail.

 

Daulton referred to problems caused by long-running money troubles in

the National Wildlife Refuge System, the subject of a report released

on Wednesday by a coalition of conservation and sporting groups.

 

The report, " Restoring America's Wildlife Legacy 2007, " said U.S.

wildlife refuges are operating at half the funding levels needed for

proper maintenance, and recommended $765 million in annual funding.

 

David Eisenhauer of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has

responsibility for the refuges, acknowledged the financial problems.

 

" Do we repair this road or do we build an addition to a visitor

center? (Regional officials) are really going through a soul searching

now in terms of priorities, with the ultimate goal of being able to

carry out their trust responsibilities, " Eisenhauer said by telephone