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While you were voting … Bush administration races ahead with environmental policy changes

Posted by: Maven on November 5, 2008 at 5:59 am

From High Country News:

A little groggy after this year’s mosh pit of an election season? Well, while you’ve been distracted by Barack Obama’s crowd-drawing star power, Joe Biden’s clean coal gaffes, John McCain’s relentless robocalling, and Sarah Palin’s $150,000 campaign wardrobe, the Bush administration has been busily ushering through some last-minute changes in environmental and public-lands policy that will be difficult for the next administration to undo.

The Endangered Species Act is at the center of this head-spinning regulatory rush. Back in August, the administration proposed tweaking the law to give federal agencies the discretion to opt out of independent biological oversight when considering new projects such as highways and electrical transmission lines. The proposal would also let the feds pass on considering individual projects’ global warming impacts on species. Such changes usually take months or even years to accomplish, but by late October, the Interior Department had 15 staffers slamming through some 200,000 public comments (not including another 100,000 form letters) in a mere 32 hours — or about 7 comments per person per minute — according to the Associated Press.

The following week, the draft environmental assessment of the change (which claims there will be no negative impact to species or habitat) appeared on the books with a comment period of just 10 days. By the time you read this, it will likely have ended. So will the 15-day comment period on another rule change that would strip Congress of the authority to extend emergency protections to threatened public lands. That authority was most recently invoked by U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., in an attempt to shield lands bordering the Grand Canyon from uranium exploration and mining. The National Park Service even plans to release a rule change proposal this fall that will make it easier for park managers to open trails to mountain bikes.

Read more from the High Country News by clicking here.

November 5, 2008 · Filed Under Wildlife & Endangered Species

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