Bush administration proposes major cut to endangered species protections

Once enacted, the new rules would essentially cut out the role of government scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service in reviewing the threats to endangered wildlife by dam, highway, mining, drilling and other projects. Instead, political appointees in various federal agencies responsible for overseeing such construction and extraction projects would be empowered to gauge environmental impacts.

The proposal is yet another effort by the Bush administration to dismantle environmental protections that remain as impediments to big business. It is also an undisguised attempt to negate the most modest acknowledgment of the problem of global warming.

Under the proposed rules, federal agencies would not be required to produce any estimate of the consequences of projects contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.

More significantly, the new rules would nullify the recent classification of the polar bear as a threatened species because of the melting of the polar ice capattributed with virtual unanimity to global warming, caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases are power plants and other large-scale industrial operations.

US government data suggests that two-thirds of the polar bear population will be lost by 2050 due to ice loss. By classifying the polar bear as endangered, the federal government was obligated to take formal, if minimal, steps to prevent the destruction of the animals habitat.

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