Interior starts counting off 30-day comment period on Endangered Species act

The clock has started ticking down for anyone who wants to comment on the Department of Interior's proposed overhaul of the Endangered Species Act, which could cut out the independent reviews of whether a government decision will affect species in danger of extinction.

The notice was posted in the Federal Register on Friday, giving anyone who wants to weigh in on the changes until Sept. 15.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will accept comments through the eRulemaking portal but won't accept e-mail or faxes.

Independent scientific reviews have been a mainstay of the Endangered Species Act and are meant to provide more input into policy decisions and avoid conflict-of-interest charges that might occur when an agency appears to rubber stamp its own decision.

Interior says the changes are narrow and procedural, but most observers think the agency is looking to circumvent attempts by environmentalists to use the act as a tool to fight projects that contribute to global warming. From the notice:

"We also propose these regulatory
changes in response to new challenges
we face with regard to global warming
and climate change."

There's more than a metaphoric 800-pound bear lurking in the room, though. In May, the polar bear was listed under the Endangered Species Act as "threatened" with extinction because of melting arctic ice -- the first species to get such a designation purely on global-warming grounds.

Public comment periods are often extended on controversial issues. But the federal government's reluctance to accept e-mail comments has itself engendered controversy. Federal officials say they can be inundated with mass mailings from well-organized interest groups. In the past, land management officials have gone so far as to say they give greater consideration individual letters and discount campaign e-mails and letters.

Ultimately, however, the public comment period can just operate as a pro-forma waiting period before the new rule takes effect. As much as public officials say they want to hear from the public about their policies, they often say of their decisions: "It's not a democracy."

-- Julie Cart

Photo: polar bear in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. credit: Subhankar Banerjee / Associated Press

Comments

[banjoboy]

The link to leave a comment isn't easy to use. I still can't figure out how to leave a comment for the fish and wildlife. Is this intentional?

[alena advani]

lets save polar bears. who gets to see them.save them otherwise forget seeing them.

[John]

For the past 40 to 50 years our Government has progressively taken our liberties and freedoms away by controlling everything within our everyday lives. This includes crude oil, natural gas, electricity, water, and yes even the environment. Until we have a Government that truly works for the people of this country we will continue to be run by the Elitists who have undermined this Country and it's forefathers values and taken away our freedoms for a global economy in order to continue to fill their pockets. It's truly a sad state of affairs and everyone working within the Government must be on the band wagon for fear of their livelihood. This will continue until America as we know it is gone or until someone in Washington has the balls to stand up and be counted as an individual.

[dave Kisor]

Go to the eRulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov/search/index.jsp and under comment or submission, enter endangered species act in the block below it. That will get you to to where you can comment.

[Laura Fedro]

The Bush Administration can not be allowed to ruin our economy, our banking industry, our housing industry, our military heritage, our international "good will" reputation AND the world's endangered animals. I refuse to accept the Administration's belief that "this is not a democracy".

To gut the ESA is an outrage and will not be allowed to move any further forward.

Sincerely, Laura Fedro

[Tom Cannon]

I would first like the Thank Dave Kisor for providing the link and instructions to be able to make a comment to the right place. I did that, and I would like to add my agreements to the other comments on here about not letting Chimp-in-Chief do another end-around, back-door attempt to put big business ahead of the people again.

[KIt]

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. If companies and departments actually paid attention to the harm that they do, no foresight board would ever have been needed; the fact that procedures were created to maintain checks on the actions taken by the government and individual developers and the like pretty much states that those oversight boards and commissions are a necessity. I dont feel the warm and fuzzies when I see fish, but that does not make it okay to endanger the habitats of these fish, or that of any other wildlife. The government, and King George, should be ashamed to even consider a proposal that would do so.

[Elizabeth Foster]

Stop the Bush administration from making a end run around the law again when they were unable to get the law changed with a favorable Congress! If even the Republicans don't want the change and aren't willing to support their own president why should anyone else want to change the law? The president has shown over the past 7+ years that he is no friend to anyone that isn't in the old, gas and big business industry. Keep him from changing the law through the back door.

Stop Bush from leavaing our country any worse off than he has already made it!

[Jenny Harker]

How Bush looks himself in the mirror each morning with his conscience clear is beyond me. To have so little regard for the health of the planet that allows him to live, eat, and breathe--as well as callous disregard for every other living being on earth--is sinful. Oh, but as long as his rich oilmen buddies are lining their pockets, well, that just makes destroying the planet A-okay in his books! Just when you think Bush can't possibly be any more disgusting, he proves you wrong.

[sheila]

"Ultimately, however, the public comment period can just operate as a pro-forma waiting period before the new rule takes effect. As much as public officials say they want to hear from the public about their policies, they often say of their decisions: "It's not a democracy."

This, more than anything else in this post should REALLY alarm all of us. I have participated in numerous hearings, as have many of us, and when I looked into it deeper, I learned that even if comments number in the tens of thousands and are 90% against (see 2005 Energy Policy Act, among others), they are COMPLETELY IGNORED because the only legal weight they carry is to reserve a place for you in the cue to sue the government later - as if this is a feasible democratic process!!

All the people who felt like "they" beat the San Onofre Toll Road need to think again - the Coastal Commission decided, based 100% on the LEGAL issues, and 0% on public outcry. Of course, it is now going to court, and is undergoing all the usual corrupt back room dealing, where the real decisions get made. This is part of the reason why any weakening of regulations is a total disaster for the environment, because our government is NOT a democracy, and these decisions are based on LAWSUITS and POLITICAL POWER.

Our democracy has been totally usurped by a process that requires government agencies to sit there and twiddle their thumbs while we emote and shout and write eloquent, angry missives, and then allows them to COMPLETELY IGNORE everything we said, and to just move ahead based on what industry lobbyists have bribed them to do.

We need to get the money OUT of politics (before, during and after elections), get actual access to our elected representatives, and change the system so that our comments matter when issues which can really impact our lives are at stake.

[Bryan Bechtel]

Oh Lord, I can't navigate through the tireless bureaucracy on regulations.gov. I cannot find the proper place to comment. Another fine example of government regulating into death the right of the people to comment on new laws. So let me just voice my concerns here:
It should go without saying that preservation of wildlife should be a top priority for our lawmakers. It should go without saying that back-door legislation, such as the proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act, is harmful to democracy. It should go without saying that letting the lunatics run the asylum is the antithesis to good sense.
However, it appears that these things are not as self evident as they should be, and so it bears repeating:
Progress cannot be sought blindly. New legislation and initiatives by private industry must acknowledge attempts to reduce our carbon footprint and respect our coinhabitants of the planet Earth.
With that thought in mind, it is essential that checks and balances be maintained. Eliminating scientific reviews is the exact opposite of what was intended by our founding fathers. Government must be responsive to the voice of the public; private industry cannot be allowed to run amok unchecked. We must, MUST, allow experts in the scientific community to perform their job -- it is a matter of democracy.
Lastly, private industry should have license to look into new business ventures, but they simply cannot be allowed to do so at the expense of others, the environment or animals. Allowing government agencies to blindly allow industry efforts to go forward without a review process is absurdity of the highest order. Allowing industry and government agencies carte blanche to advance controversial projects flies in the face of conventional wisdom and weakens their very reason for existence: that is, to protect the world around us.
For these reasons, and for so many others, this proposed change simply must be stopped. This kind of legislation introduces a fairly slippery slope that allows private industry unheralded access and unchecked rights that have never been part of our society. Now is not the time to rewrite American history and to start eliminating the proper checks and balances that have existed since 1776.

[Aleksander]

warm weather has set in