Update: Bush's Midnight Mischief Weakens Wildlife Protections
Published December 12, 2008 @ 02:19PM PT
Outgoing Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne today finalized regulations gutting the Endangered Species Act. The move is opposed by the public, Congress, and President-elect Obama, but a favorite cause of the oil, coal and mining industries, as well as the free-market, anti-regulatory ideologues who brought us our current recession.
The new regs forbid consideration of global warming as a cause of extinction -- something Kempthorne was forced to do earlier this year to protect the endangered polar bear. This piece of "midnight rule-making" -- changes to federal regulations made by an outgoing administration in its waning days -- may undo the scientifically supported protections for the polar bear.
The new regulations also allow federal agencies to consider projects and permits that might affect endangered species without having to consult federal wildlife scientists, which has up until now been required under the Endangered Species Act.
Instead, the agencies championing the projects can consult with themselves.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and Defenders of Wildlife immediately filed suit in the Northern District of California to stop the regulations, on the grounds that they violated the very law they are supposed to implement.
The Bush Administration also may have violated procedures by improperly dispensing with the overhwhelmingly negative public comment on the new regulations -- over 300,000 written comments were filed, but the administration spent only two to three weeks reviewing them (which means a comment would have had to be dispensed with every three seconds).
"This administration's disdain for wildlife and the environment has never been more clear than it is today," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, a former director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, now with Defenders of Wildlife . "They are doing everything they can to cement their anti-environmental legacy before the Obama administration takes office."
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Comments (32)
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Author
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Edward Humes is the author of eight critically acclaimed nonfiction books, including the bestseller Mississippi Mud and, most recently, Monkey Girl. He has received the Pulitzer Prize for his journalism and is writer-at-large for Los Angeles magazine. He lives in California. His latest book, ECO BARONS: The Dreamers, Schemers & Millionaires Who are Saving Our Planet, was published in March 2009 by Ecco/Harper Collins. To visit his blog, click here.
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This is truly scary. I've never really understood the mechanics of last-minute regulations. I do understand how Bush can help partisans "burrow" into the federal bureaucracy by appointing them to multi-year terms in positions that are only under periodic review. Does the same method work for regulations? What actually prevents Obama from rolling back destructive last-minute regulations as soon as he takes office?
Posted by Danny Moldovan on 12/12/2008 @ 03:54PM PT
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I've heard there are more polar bears and that their population has been steadily increasing in the past few years. All this talk about global warming is a hoax. In the early 80's, the scare tactic was global iceage. Glaciers get bigger and then get smaller...it's been going on for years and years. Yes, we should take care of our earth and natural resources, but let's proceed with knowledge and common sense. If global warming were true, then why aren't the "big shots" dedicated enough to stop using their jets, SUVs, and why do they have multiple mansions that use up more energy per year than 10 average families??? It's just the little guy that they want to suffer and control. Wise up...
Posted by Glenda Smith on 12/12/2008 @ 06:04PM PT
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In 1937, we changed inauguration day from March 4 to January 20. From the 18th to the mid 20th century, it took some time for transitions to complete.
In most nations, presidents or prime ministers take a matter of a day or days to affect a change of government. If you are elected on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, can we not have the president-elect take office by December 1 and the new Congress a week earlier?
Segue......the ability of a lame-duck president to issue regulations that trump the new party and the new president is patently disingenuous.
Posted by A B on 12/12/2008 @ 06:30PM PT
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Even though we have facts backing up the reality of Global warming, it really is common sense. My husband runs a waste transfer facility, and has mass amounts of knowledge about the reactions to waste and our environment. You can't just stick it all together and not expect toxins that are not only negative to the planet growth, but to our growth as part of the planet. The politicians who have these luxuries that are harmful to our environment and people, are selfish and live , obviously, for today and not tomorrow. I have two young grandchildren and another on the way. I want a healthier future.
Posted by Carrie Klossner on 12/12/2008 @ 06:52PM PT
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Does George Bush make anyone else feel like they are being led around by a 3rd grader? I really think he'd fail that game show "Are you smarter than a 5th grader."
Raymond, I think it's not only disingenuous... it's irresponsible the way Bush is pulling it off. Oh, nevermind. Big government in this country is always about being irresponsible. Still, you'd think a president might at least have a wee bit of maturity.
Posted by Luella - on 12/13/2008 @ 12:02AM PT
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I think that Bush is merely a channel for a very dark force. Look at all he's done to ensure this world will not survive the environmental catastrophe that has been set in motion.The scientific evidence is overwhelming. Those that want to oppose pure science are merely blinded by their own ignorance. I am thankful his reign is over. Now we must re-build all of the damage thats been done.............
Posted by amber lopez on 12/13/2008 @ 01:03AM PT
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I'm a geology undergraduate at the Univeristy of Georgia and from what I've learned and double-checked on is that all mass extinctions are linked to climate change with 4 out of 5 of the most significant extinction events being caused by gobal warming. Polar bears get all the attention, but it's really going to be a big deal when half of the sea life dies off.
Posted by James Humma on 12/13/2008 @ 03:07AM PT
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The University of Georgia.....the only thought that comes through, is that the only liberal oasis in that state is the university.
Your senators and representatives, for the most part, are caught up being elected and re-elected by low-information voters whose family trees do not biforcate....and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are the descendants of whom James Oglethorpe was commissioned to incarcerate.
Posted by A B on 12/13/2008 @ 05:15AM PT
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Raymond, that sort of elitist left wing snobbery does little to endorse your cause. On the contrary, it only enforces the idea that your own breed of holier then thou bigotry is to be avoided like the bubonic plague. This need to use name calling toward an entire state of people is unfathomable, and uncoscionable. That sort of negativity does more to enforce the contrary opinion then the the other side can ever do.
Georgia's recent senate vote was exceedingly close. This speaks to a different conclusion than the one you posit. Ultimately however run off elections end up being decided by effective mobilization of loyalists. The results of the run off are more an indication of the failure of democrats in georgia to mobilize than an indication of Georgian conservative values.
Posted by William Donges on 12/13/2008 @ 07:12AM PT
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Yes. It is truly scary when you finally wake-up and realize that those we elect to public office are so conniving that they will circumvent the entire system to force their legislation upon We the People. The only reason a sworn public servant would perform such an act is if the bill is wrongful or doesn’t meet Constitutional muster. There are many examples of this in our government’s history. One such event which is having catastrophic influence on our nation, if not the whole world, right now is the Federal Reserve (Income Tax) Act of 1913. The act was voted on in a midnight fashion without the legal majority to do so and with a majority of those not present already having stated their intention to oppose the initiative. As a result the Federal Reserve Act was never legally ratified. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy executed Presidential Order 11110 which abolished the Federal Reserve Bank et al. However, before he could act upon his directive, he was assassinated for having done so. The order still stands to day all a president has to do is act upon it. However it must be one with upright moral values and a desire to do what is in the best interest of the American people. The effects of this covertly imposed will by a few Bankers and public servants is bankrupting our country and raping each and every one of us. What is horrifying about it is the apathetic attitude We the People have taken towards it. Why are we not demanding accountability of the sworn to any office? Why are we not demanding an end to the theft of our lives and that of our children to come? Why are we content to be slaves in this new world order of control and depravation? Where is our will our spirit our humanity? With this in mind, force your elected public servant to do what is right not sneak behind you back or throw them from office. Better yet demand that they be tried, convicted, and punished for their crimes in all cases. Not just your president but Congressmen, Senators, Governors, commissioners, judges, mayors, and councilmen. The world you see now is the result of this kind of back stage trickery by individuals you have been allowed to vote on. CHANGE IT!!!!!
Posted by Jay Fuller on 12/13/2008 @ 07:56AM PT
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While global warming and cooling are actual cyclic events caused by posses outside our current control, The modern farce behind the global warming scare is driven purely by a desire to tax and control the population of the world by the same criminals that have brought you this and past financial disasters. Don’t let them take you for a fool!!!
Posted by Jay Fuller on 12/13/2008 @ 08:04AM PT
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William Donges ---as James Oglethorpe, first governor of Georgia, said to the first European inhabitants, appropriate to your commentary about my reply....." if the chains fit, wear them." ROFL
Posted by A B on 12/13/2008 @ 08:42AM PT
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The Right Wing Spinmeisters -along with the Theocratic Literalists - have convinced their ideologues that global warming is fiction and part of the science of the last six thousand years since Mr. and Mrs. Adam and Eve Murphy lived in the Garden of Eden.
Of course, the Serpent was a Left Wing Elitist........and it was a Red Communist Apple that ended the Right Wing paradise and that is why there is such a thing as Murphy's Law.
If you don't believe me, why don't you ask those college dropouts, Rush Oxycontin Limbaugh or Sean Hannity if I missed any part of the fairy tale?
Posted by A B on 12/13/2008 @ 08:54AM PT
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Like so many of the issues on this site, the global warming discussion becomes very heated (no pun intended) in both directions. I think we can safely say that both sides have merit in this discussion. Global warming and cooling ARE cyclical. However, the present day human race has had a significant effect on accelerating this process. If we were amoebae, we wouldn't care. But since we seem to want to preserve our species, we need to figure out a way to maintain the global conditions that sustain our species. So lets all work together toward that end, and try to tuck away our insults.
Posted by Annie And Emily Gross McMurphy on 12/13/2008 @ 10:51AM PT
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In the United States, an interesting political phenomenon has taken place.
Even though arguably, the neoconservative or neocon control the Republican party, the term "conservative" evokes strong ideological branding.
Even though neoliberals and centrist conservatives control the Democratic party, the term "liberal" is considered weak and effete. In fact, some liberals will use the term "progressive" in order to avoid the "liberal stigma."
Make no mistake, Annie Gross McMurphy, tucking away your true feelings on this issue behind some sense of etiquette is exactly what the neocons expect of the effete and weak and elite leftist or LIBRULS.
These secular or theocratic ideologues convince the low information voters to dismiss global warming as ALL normal climactic changes that we should not overly concern ourselves with.
Your pun may be jocular and well intended, but rest assured, until and unless we become justifiably angry at ignorance and arrogance on these and other causes, the United States will be the last industrialised nation to achieve parity.
We create problems for ourselves and for Canada, who are light years ahead of us despite the fact that our carbon emissions pollute their environment.
Posted by A B on 12/13/2008 @ 01:37PM PT
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Raymond Sawyer, please don't get me wrong. I am well aware of the garbage being fed to low information voters, and I agree with everything you say. I have spent the last eight years being furious with two close family members. After a few heated discussions I realized that nothing I said was going to change their minds. However, both of these people did an about face about a year ago when their evangelical leaders decided that global warming IS real and IS something that "Good Christians" need to be concerned about. They are still low information voters, in my opinion, because they are content with being led and only believe information from one source.
I think that the only way to change someone's mind is with hard cold facts-- research-- sent to them via e-mail over and over from many sources until the wall of ignorance is chipped away.
How does that sound to you?
Posted by Annie And Emily Gross McMurphy on 12/13/2008 @ 02:49PM PT
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Ignorance is not blissful - and I agree.
Sounds like a plan....LOL....Best regards to you both....
Raymond.
Posted by A B on 12/13/2008 @ 02:58PM PT
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> I do understand how Bush can help partisans "burrow" into the federal bureaucracy by appointing them to multi-year terms in positions that are only under periodic review. Does the same method work for regulations? What actually prevents Obama from rolling back destructive last-minute regulations as soon as he takes office?
Danny, by law most changes to federal regulations have to go through a lengthy process -- announced in the Federal Register, opened for comments, presented at public hearings (sometimes), review of comments, final rule published in the Federal Register, etc. etc.
So rolling them back will likely mean starting this whole process all over again.
Reportedly, Congressional Democrats are looking at a relatively obscure law called the Congressional Review Act of 1996, which might allow the new Congress to roll back some of the Bush rule changes. I wrote a bit about that in November at:
http://globalwarming.change.org/blog/view/congress_may_avert_bush_admins_regulatory_midnight_massacre
Posted by Emily Gertz on 12/13/2008 @ 07:22PM PT
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Has everyone over looked the fact that, in general, plant life needs CO2 which in turn spurs growth that returns more sun light to space which then has a cooling effect on the earth?
Don't you see that this is simply another scheme to degrade a sucessful civilization an steal the wealth and productivity away from you?
Posted by Jay Fuller on 12/14/2008 @ 10:42AM PT
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Jay, a geochemistry professor introduced some figures to my class when lecturing about residence and renewal time. He stated that even should humans stop all CO2 output (which includes the production of concrete, an industry much overlooked) it would still take over 700 years for CO2 levels in the atmosphere to reach equilibrium again. Right now atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are among the highest, if not highest, than they've been since the Earth was first oxygenated during the beginning of the Proterozoic eon ~2.4 billion years ago.
It's speculated that global climate simply hasn't yet caught up to predicted temperatures. These things take time.
And Raymond Sawyer, I don't know U.S. history like I do geologic history, but Georgia was controlled by the Democratic party for several decades until around the time President Bush was elected into office.
Just a little information.
Posted by James Humma on 12/14/2008 @ 02:03PM PT
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Is there anything the average person (such as myself) can do to oppose this regulation?
Posted by Elizabeth Klemm on 12/14/2008 @ 07:12PM PT
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December 28 will be the posthumous anniversary of this act.
Elizabeth, there's always something the average person can do. Speak out. Challenge power structures.
Posted by Luella - on 12/15/2008 @ 03:29PM PT
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We try not to miss Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. She and Keith Olberman to a lesser degree, have kept the nation abreast of the many lame-duck policy and procedural regulatory changes being made by President Bush and his neocon team.
We have been told that the Obama Transition Team is keeping track of these changes, and will charge the new Congress to undo the harm that these neocons are trying to hamstring the Obama change efforts.
Many of these regulations were implemented to stop the Kyoto accords and to make the theocratic neocons happy that the Neocon USA would consider global warming a "LIBrul LIE".
Posted by A B on 12/15/2008 @ 03:41PM PT
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James, there are "Democrats" and there are "Dixiecrat Democrats aka DLC or Democrats in Name Only".
The majority of these "Democrats" have become honest with the process, and become Republicans. A good example is former US Senator Zell Miller who went to the 2004 RNC and seconded the nomination of George W. Bush for re-election. Joseph Lieberman of CT is not the only person who literally belongs to the wrong political party for reasons only known to them.
PS- I am expert on ecclesial history, especially the English Reformation, and its ongoing process. Your knowledge of this topic is both informative and raises my awareness.
Thank you for your imput on matters that I have only a low information threshold about. Rt. Rev. Dr. Raymond E. Sawyer.
Posted by A B on 12/15/2008 @ 03:50PM PT
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I sincerely hope that obama will actually listen to the people instead of following his own agenda or that of big money.This blatant disregard for public opinion has gone on long enough.
Posted by David Newkirk on 12/16/2008 @ 07:19AM PT
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I disagree re: Senator Lieberman. Although it is true he has thought independantly and sided with the republicans on several key issues, he is still very much a liberal. He voted for tax increases and government over regulation every time. I am opposed to most of his domestic agenda, but it is hard not to respect this man.
Posted by Charlie Reed on 12/16/2008 @ 10:12AM PT
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Charlie......I am above all else, an episcopal divine, and as such, should exercise the compassion and the better angels of his nature as regards Senator Lieberman that President-elect Obama exercised initially.
Politically, I understand that the Democratic Leadership Council, a group that Lieberman co-founded along with Clinton, Miller et al., are neolibs and that more adequately describes what I believe is Joseph Lieberman's political beliefs.
Posted by A B on 12/16/2008 @ 10:24AM PT
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raymond just wants to fight with people guys, it doesnt matter what the arguement is about he still feels the need to put his two cents in... i feel sorry for the poor man it must be tough not to have any friends..
Posted by g h on 12/16/2008 @ 03:41PM PT
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Is that how you view my imput, Greg, for I have read your replies in many threads, and it would seem that not too many fellow bloggers have sympathy with your political philosophy.
Now, I do put my two cents in often.....and you must have missed the number of compliments for my imput and private missives in agreement that I receive.
But your ad hominem flame was so unnecessary, Greg, because I wager that you are a nicer person than this reply would suggest.
Rt. Rev.Dr. Raymond Sawyer
Posted by A B on 12/16/2008 @ 04:09PM PT
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I think that the entire governmental system needs a wakeup call. We as citizens of a so called free nation have the right to stand up and demand that this age of an evil empire be laid to rest. This is the very reason the C.S.A. wrote their own constitution and suceeded from there VOLUNTARY union with these animals. Greed and selfish desires for control have infected the hearts of many political figures and the American public can't even trust it's own comander in chief. WTF wake up, before it's too late, we can't be led by the blind anymore or led as if we are blind. We are socially blind to the travisties our leaders have done around the world. War hungry national imperialist have taken over our world and brought it to the brink of destruction, for a reason I am sure. I beleive we need to take the power back from these overpaid bigots and put it back into the hands of it's people. God fearing people with values and morals. Where is this more true than here and now. please feel free to comment.
Posted by tommy johnson on 12/16/2008 @ 04:14PM PT
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That "cut and paste" that precedes my reply is such an example of right wing conspiratorial opposition.
I frankly do not care what causal factors are warming the planet, I want it addressed globally.
I could google opposing views, and " cut and paste" the result, however, my final thought is this:
To those who understand this impending global disaster, no explantion is necessary, and to those who refuse to do so, no explanation will suffice.
Posted by A B on 12/17/2008 @ 07:40AM PT
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As true as your position on the issue may be, and I believe it to be absolutely true. Your position on the state of Georgia is NOT justified by that position in the slightest. It is a prejudiced overgeneralization. The chain Mr. Sawyer, does not fit. As was evidenced by the recent Georgia senate race. Prejudice and sterotyping whether thrown out by liberals or conservatives is equally bad.
Posted by William Donges on 12/18/2008 @ 01:10PM PT
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