September 29,
2005
Thank
you so much for all of your help and hard work leading up
to Thursday's vote on Rep. Pombo's bill in the U.S. House
of Representatives. Unfortunately, the bill passed the House
229-193. The battle will now go to the Senate, where we hope
Senators Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) and Hilary Clinton (D-NY) will
continue their examination of the true picture of the Endangered
Species Act. We will keep you updated on the progress of this
proposal and when your help is needed to make calls to your
senators.
The
bill, HR 3824 (misleadingly called the "Threatened and
Endangered Species Recovery Act"), is the work of Rep.
Richard Pombo (R-CA), chair of the House Resources Committee
and Congress's greatest opponent of endangered species protections.
Representative Pombo has long represented the interests of
developers and the oil and mining industries.
The
Endangered Species Act is wildlife's last chance. It is the
law that brought back wolves to the West, helped grizzly bears
recover, saved the black-footed ferret, and is now being used
to help protect the recently re-discovered Ivory Billed-Woodpecker
in Arkansas. By the way, it was also responsible for saving
our national bird, the Bald Eagle.
FOR
MORE INFORMATION:
For
more information on the Pombo bill, read the talking points
and background below and visit the following links:
Animal
Defense League of Arizona:
http://www.adlaz.org/esavote.html
Center
for Biological Diversity:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/pombo9-19-05.html
Defenders
of Wildlife:
http://action.defenders.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=1781.0&dlv_id=6421
Endangered
Species Coalition:
http://www.stopextinction.org
TALKING
POINTS :
*
I am calling to ask you to support for the Endangered Species
Act and urge you to oppose Representative Pombo's Threatened
and Endangered Species Recovery Act (H.R. 3824) because it
would weaken protections for endangered species and habitat.
*
Representative Richard Pombo's bill aggressively strips the
Endangered Species Act of its strongest protections. Representative
Pombo and his bill are controversial and out of step with
the American public's support of the Endangered Species Act.
*
For over thirty years, the Endangered Species Act has been
a safety net for wildlife, fish and plants on the brink of
extinction. It has been successful in preventing the extinction
of the American Bald Eagle, the gray wolf, the pacific salmon,
(or other local species) as well as many other species.
*
The Endangered Species Act stands for fundamental principles
that we all believe in and cannot allow to be weakened or
removed. In fact, 86% of Americans support the Endangered
Species Act.
*
Greedy developers and the politicians they give money to are
attempting to weaken America's safety net for endangered species.
We have a responsibility to prevent the extinction of fish,
plants and wildlife because once they are gone we cannot bring
them back.
*
Please support the Endangered Species Act and oppose any bill
that would weaken protections for endangered species and habitat.
BACKGROUND:
Rep.
Pombo's Extinction bill would gut the Endangered Species Act
on behalf of greedy developers, oil companies, timber companies,
mining companies and extreme property rights groups.
-
Eliminates critical habitat: Species with designated critical
habitat are recovering twice as fast as species without it.
Pombo's bill completely eliminates critical habitat. Critical
habitat is one of the most important and successful tools
in the conservation toolbox if we don't protect the places
species call home, they will never recover.
-
Politicizes scientific decisions: The Endangered Species Act
requires that all decisions be made on basis of the best available
scientific information-what constitutes the best science is
left up to the scientific community. Pombo's bill allows a
political appointee, the Secretary of Interior, to define
the best science and to unilaterally overturn, with no public
or scientific review, any decision she deems to not fit her
definition. Science should be determined by scientists, not
political appointees.
-
Eliminates independent oversight: The Endangered Species Act
requires that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and/or NOAA
Fisheries independently review federal actions which may harm
endangered species. Pombo's bill allows the Secretary of Interior,
a political appointee, to exempt individual projects or entire
classes of projects from independent oversight. Rep.Pombo's
bill takes unbiased, professional wildlife and fisheries experts
out of the equation.
-
Weakens recovery efforts: The Endangered Species Act requires
that federal recovery plans be implemented by federal agencies,
and that species be protected until they are fully recovered.
Pombo's bill allows federal agencies to ignore recovery plans,
and requires that species be delisted within individual states
even though the species as whole is tumbling toward extinction.
Rep. Pombo's bill will fragment recovery efforts, throwing
the Endangered Species Act's holistic approach out the window.
-
Allows projects that harm species: The Endangered Species
Act is a "look before you leap" law. It requires
that all actions which may push species toward extinction
be reviewed before they are implemented. Pombo's bill reverses
the order. It requires that destructive projects go forward
with no review unless federal agencies object within 90-days.
-
Bankrupts the Endangered Species Act by requiring the federal
government to pay landowners to not violate the law. This
not only would have a tremendous negative impact on the federal
budget, it would set a precedent to require the government
to pay developers for any profits lost to environmental protections,
and it would reward developers who plan the maximum and most
potentially profitable projects for the most ecologically
important habitat. In short, it begs developers to plan projects
that allow them to extort payment from the government. The
conservation community supports reasonable incentives for
landowners who take proactive actions that significantly contribute
to the recovery of endangered and threatened species.
The
Endangered Species Act is a safety net that protects wildlife,
fish and plants on the brink of extinction. It has been enormously
successful in preventing the extinction of hundreds of species,
including bald eagles, gray wolves and Pacific salmon. We
must not diminish protections for these magnificent animals,
or for the places they call home.
Information
courtesy of the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders
of Wildlife, and the Endangered Species Coalition.
|
