WASHINGTON, April 30, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- After months of stopping many of the last administration's environmental advancements, the Bush administration has managed to slip gutting the Endangered Species Act in his first 100 days in office. President Bush has proposed to allow more arsenic in our drinking water, more carbon dioxide in our air and now has included an Extinction Rider in the budget. President Bush's 100-Day assault on the environment will undermine the crown jewel of our environmental laws, the Endangered Species Act (ESA), leaving only a facade of the law that once stood in its place.
"If the Bush Extinction Rider is included in this year's Interior Department funding bill, when Secretary Norton is given sole discretion over the listing of endangered or threatened species, the Endangered and Threatened List will be replaced by the Extinction Waiting List," stated Brock Evans, Executive Director of the diverse Endangered Species Coalition. "The listing of species should be based on the best science available and not the political climate of the day. If citizens' right to sue is made moot and the deadlines are removed, it is inevitable that politically and economically controversial species will not be given protection under the Act."
Deeply imbedded with in the President's Fiscal Year 2002 Budget Proposal lies one paragraph that would change endangered species protections for years to come. This paragraph, the Bush Extinction Rider, would not only remove all deadlines to list species as threatened or endangered and there by render most citizens' lawsuits on behalf of species meaningless. The Extinction Rider would also give Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior, sole discretion to decide which species to list, ensuring that the ESA responds to politics, not science.
By removing deadlines for listing, imperiled species will hang on the brink of extinction while waiting, often for many years, for their needed protection. In the 1980's, 34 species went extinct while idling in the decision making process, an additional 5 species were lost in the 1990s. Deadlines ensure needed protections will be enacted in time for species that are clinging to survival.
Norton is not an objective party, to be given the sole discretion of which species to list and therefore fully protect. For example, in 1995, while Attorney General of Colorado, Norton signed onto a legal brief that would fundamentally alter the Endangered Species Act. Arguing that the ESA was unconstitutional, the brief requested those habitat protections of endangered species on private and state lands be overturned. About half of all federally listed endangered species live exclusively on state and private lands and thus would have been left without the protections needed for survival.
The Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) claims that the reason for this Extinction Rider is because they are spending too much money on lawsuits for listing and critical habitat designation; however, such citizen suits are presently the only way to ensure that species are listed in a timely manner and the decision to list such species is based on sound science, not political deal making. In California, 90% of the 288 species protected by the ESA have been listed due to citizen lawsuits or court orders. The FWS has stated that they need $80-$120 million dollars over the next five years to relieve the backlog of listing decisions. This year, the Bush budget only increases funding by $2 million, which will not even come close to addressing the funding problems in the FWS.
"The solution to this problem of growing extinctions is not to kick citizens out of the process, which has so far been the only tool to ensure that an imperiled species has a chance of protection. The solution is to fully fund the listing programs of the Fish and Wildlife Service, so we can get on with the job," Evans explained.
The Endangered Species Coalition, comprised of over 430 environmental, religious, scientific, sporting, and business organizations, works to defend and strengthen the Endangered Species Act as well as to improve biodiversity protections in the United States. For more information, please visit www.stopextinction.org