Feds rush to ease endangered species rules

Source: AP/MSNBC

15 reviewers, 200,000 comments, 32 hours to go through all of them

updated 8:24 p.m. ET, Tues., Oct. 21, 2008
WASHINGTON - Rushing to ease endangered species rules before President Bush leaves office, U.S. Interior Department officials are trying to review 200,000 comments from the public in just 32 hours, according to an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has called a team of 15 people to Washington this week to pore through letters and online comments about a proposal to exclude greenhouse gases and the advice of federal biologists from decisions about whether dams, power plants and other federal projects could harm species. That would be the biggest change in endangered species rules since 1986.

In an e-mail last week to Fish and Wildlife managers across the country, Bryan Arroyo, head of the agency's endangered species program, said the team would work eight hours a day starting Tuesday to the close of business on Friday to sort through the comments. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's office, according to the e-mail, will be responsible for analyzing and responding to them.

Last week's end to the public comment period initiated the review.

'Last-ditch attempt'
Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, whose own letter opposing the changes is among the thousands that will be processed, called the 32-hour deadline a "last-ditch attempt to undermine the long-standing integrity of the Endangered Species program."


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27312289/

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Openly scandalous abuse of orderly process and power to further undermine our natural world contrary to the public interest and that of future generations by the ruling puke junta.

as soon as we can get the Anti-conservation Anti-Earth crowd out of there...

everything that * has rolled back.

does become the president. He won't be able to fix everything that has be rolled back by bush. I hope his plans incorporate all that.

So if they are in such a hurry "before Bush leaves office" maybe we can hope he is indeed
leaving office?

would they bother with this at this late date? Just for the sake of eliminating some endangered species? I'd be interested to hear the rationale, anyway.

After all, with no endangered species to worry about, knocking down forests to build condos or clearing wetlands for a refinery are no problem at all. And once these projects are set into motion, they cannot be undone....even by a new president.

That is probably what this is about.

Though they probably don't even bother with that these days.

..environment, economy, etc.

These THUGS are ramsacking the place and rendering it uninhabitable before moving out - and leaving the mess for the next President and next 7 generations to deal with.

We can't take out the TRASH too soon here.

Retreat but burn the crops and buildings, sow salt in the fields, leave nothing standing.

The whole World is tuning in.

leaving nothing for the 'enemy.' Blow up and burn everything during a retreat.

You know they're scared.

I mean, I don't have any other way of putting it.

refuse to let them make any more rulings or transact any business other than that which is necessary. Their intentions are dishonorable. They DO NOT have the best interests of the American citizen at heart. EVERYTHING cheney*/bush* have done should be considered suspect and subject to review and possible recension, including SCOTUS appointments.

..............destroy destroy destroy.......