Down with animals

A recently procured draft proposal of changes to the Endangered Species Act shows plans to strip the act of all efficacy with wording that the Center for Biological Diversity says reads like “a wish list of regulations the [Bush] administration and its industry allies have been talking about for years.”

Changes include methods to reduce the number of species eligible for endangered status through biological doublespeak. Currently, a species is afforded protections if its extinction can be seen in the “foreseeable future,” which in some cases can span up to 300 years. New rules give the Fish and Wildlife Service discretion to limit that “future” to 20 years, leaving species with longer life spans off the list even if they are at risk.

The changes also strip protections for critical habitats, allow projects proven to pose eco-hazards to proceed and, most troubling, hand veto power over federal regulations to individual states. As CBD policy director Kieran Suckling points out, it’s because of historically proven state preference for cash over ecology that a federal law was created in the first place.

by SCOTT SAXON