
The presumably outgoing Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has decided to out-do James Watt. He recently announced changes which undermine the Endangered Species Act.
According to the Center For Biological Diversity the new regulations would:
- Exempt thousands of federal activities from review under the Endangered Species Act;
- Eliminate checks and balances of independent oversight;
- Limit which effects can be considered harmful;
- Prevent consideration of a project's contribution to global warming;
- Set an inadequate 60-day deadline for wildlife experts to evaluate a project in the instances when they are invited to participate -- or else the project gets an automatic green light;
- Enable large-scale projects to go unreviewed by dividing them into hundreds of small projects.
Express your righteous indignation by taking action.