AS expected, the proposed changes in the ESA were posted to the Federal Register on Friday August 15. Comments will be accepted until September 15. The Bush Administration apparently decided sometime last fall that it will no longer accept any public comments on proposed Endangered Species Act regulations by e-mail or fax. Read below for information on how to comment.
To read the FR notice:
.pdf version of new rules
The Federal Register notice is only 8 pages.
A couple things I object to with the new rules:
- The elimination of informal consultation and the reduction of formal consultations
- New justifications for avoiding or minimizing Endangered Species Act consultations based on "Lack of Causation" arguments.
- The creation of an arbitrary deadline that will be used to enable even the most harmful projects to escape Endangered Species Act scrutiny.
The FR notice states
The Services have gained considerable experience in implementing the Act, as have other Federal agencies, States, and property owners; there have been many judicial decisions regarding almost every aspect of section 7 of the Act and its implementing regulations; and the Government Accountability Office has completed reviews of section 7 implementation.
but internal reviews by the National Marine Fisheries Service and Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that about half the unilateral evaluations by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management that determined wildfire prevention projects were unlikely to harm protected species were not legally or scientifically valid. Those had been permitted under the 2003 rule changes. My job is conducting section 7 consultations. After 8 years of doing it I know that there are only a few, less than a handful, of people in other federal or state agencies that I would trust to put protecting species at the top of their priorities....or to even have it on their list. And the people in other agencies that want to do the right thing are usually ignored.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments or materials concerning this proposed rule in one of the following ways:
(1) Through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions on the website for submitting comments.
Or try this link, under Interagency Cooperation Under the Endangered Species Act click the "Send a comment or Submission"
Link to submit comments
(2) By U.S. mail or hand-delivery to Public Comment Processing, Attention: 1018-AT50, Division of Policy and Directives Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 222, Arlington, VA 22203. We will not accept e-mail or faxes. We will post all comments on http://www.regulations.gov. This generally means that we will post any personal information you provide us (see the Public Comments section below for more information).
Why aren't they accepting email comments? I can only guess it has something to do with the 600,000 comments they received regarding the polar bear listing. Regardless, you can submit comments electronically through the site above.
One thing is very obvious. The lack of public meetings, the abnormally short comment period and the refusal to accept email comments indicate that the administration is not interested in public opinion. I work for NMFS on section 7 consultations, our region does the most ESA consultations in the country and I can confirm that we do a LOT of them...no one in our region was consulted on these changes. Not even our Regional Administrator and he is a political appointee.
The Natural REsources Defense Council is also collecting comments to be delivered to the USFWS:
http://www.nrdconline.org/...