Bush Wants to Shaft Endangered Species Before Leaving Office
He may be a lame duck, but the president still has the power to mess with America. His latest project: pushing through rule changes that would reduce protections for endangered species. Given the wonky complexities of the rule-changing process, it will be difficult for Barack Obama to undo the damage, but then that’s the whole point.
The Telegraph:
The proposed change would eliminate the input of federal wildlife scientists in some endangered species cases, allowing the federal agency in charge of building, authorizing or funding a project to determine for itself if it is likely to harm endangered wildlife and plants.
Current regulations require independent wildlife biologists to sign off on these decisions before a project can go forward, at times modifying the design to better protect species.