Santa Fe Reporter
Enviros brace for Bush’s last acts
Enviros brace for Bush’s last acts
By: Laura Paskus 11/18/2008
The Mexican gray wolf has been protected under the Endangered Species Act. "It’s fair to say the Bush administration has wreaked havoc on the nation’s environmental laws, opened up previously closed areas to energy development and actively thwarted regulations meant to protect clean air and water.
Now, in a rush to further relax environmental rules and deregulate oversight, the Bush administration is pushing a number of rule changes to take effect before Inauguration Day. These include easing restrictions on power plants, allowing factory farms to skirt the Clean Water Act and weakening toxic emissions standards for oil refineries, among other things."...
..."Another rule recently proposed by the Bush administration would allow federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Reclamation or Department of Energy, to approve their own projects without input from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency charged with overseeing how projects might affect rare plants and animals. The proposal would amend the 35-year-old Endangered Species Act and, according to Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program director of WildEarth Guardians, be little more than a “parting gift to industry.”
If finalized, Rosmarino says the regulation would allow the Bureau of Land Management to authorize oil and gas drilling without considering impacts on endangered species; the Forest Service could do the same with logging and drilling projects; and the Bureau of Reclamation could operate dams regardless of how they might affect endangered fish.
Furthermore, on Nov. 14, the US Department of the Interior published its final rule regarding cleanups of abandoned mines. The rule sends $4 million in grant money for the reclamation of abandoned mines to New Mexico—yet stipulates the money must be used predominantly for coal mines, despite pleas from state officials that this prevents or hinders cleaning up other sites, such as uranium mines." More>>>>
Now, in a rush to further relax environmental rules and deregulate oversight, the Bush administration is pushing a number of rule changes to take effect before Inauguration Day. These include easing restrictions on power plants, allowing factory farms to skirt the Clean Water Act and weakening toxic emissions standards for oil refineries, among other things."...
..."Another rule recently proposed by the Bush administration would allow federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Reclamation or Department of Energy, to approve their own projects without input from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency charged with overseeing how projects might affect rare plants and animals. The proposal would amend the 35-year-old Endangered Species Act and, according to Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program director of WildEarth Guardians, be little more than a “parting gift to industry.”
If finalized, Rosmarino says the regulation would allow the Bureau of Land Management to authorize oil and gas drilling without considering impacts on endangered species; the Forest Service could do the same with logging and drilling projects; and the Bureau of Reclamation could operate dams regardless of how they might affect endangered fish.
Furthermore, on Nov. 14, the US Department of the Interior published its final rule regarding cleanups of abandoned mines. The rule sends $4 million in grant money for the reclamation of abandoned mines to New Mexico—yet stipulates the money must be used predominantly for coal mines, despite pleas from state officials that this prevents or hinders cleaning up other sites, such as uranium mines." More>>>>
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