Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Wildlife & Endangered Species Category
Click here to view all posts

Lawsuit challenges 11th hour cuts in endangered species protections

Posted by: Maven on December 17, 2008 at 8:47 pm

From the Environment News Service:

Regulations announced by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne last week that would exempt many federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gases, from review under the Endangered Species Act were published in the Federal Register Tuesday.

But the regulations are being challenged in court by three conservation groups – the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and Defenders of Wildlife, who filed suit in federal court for the Northern District of California the day the regulations were announced, December 11.

Unless overturned in court, the regulations will take effect on January 11, nine days before President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated and the presidency of George W. Bush comes to a close.

“These regulations undermine fundamental protections for the nation’s endangered species,” said Noah Greenwald with the Center for Biological Diversity. “We hope an Obama administration or Congress will act quickly to undo this 11th hour attempt to weaken our most important law for protecting wildlife.”

The lawsuit argues that the regulations violate the Endangered Species Act and did not go through the required public review process. The regulations, first proposed on August 11, were rushed by the Bush administration through an abbreviated process in which more than 300,000 comments from the public were reviewed in three weeks, and environmental impacts were analyzed in a brief environmental assessment, rather than a fuller environmental impact statement.

“This is a clear example of a lame duck administration ramming through weakened regulations that are opposed by Congress and the public,” Greenwald said. “When the survival of species hangs in the balance, public policy should not be rushed.”

Read more from the Environment News Service by clicking here.

December 17, 2008 · Filed Under Wildlife & Endangered Species

Comments

Leave a Reply