I visit the Sierra Club website once in a while to read about enivronmental news. It seems like they are usually fighting many of the Bush administration policies or a Republican bill that threatens the environment.
It was a pleasant surprise to read that the Sierra Club had good news for a change. The Bush Adminstration lost a battle.
Today, Federal Court Judge James Redden ruled that the federal salmon plan for the Columbia and Snake rivers is legally flawed in four different respects. First, Judge Redden took issue with the federal agencies' assertions that the dams were part of the immutable landscape. Second, he states that NOAA's approach in this biological opinion "stands in sharp contrast to...prior biological opinions" and is "insufficiently comprehensive to `insure'" the protection of salmon. Third, NOAA did not properly analyze critical habitat for salmon. And fourth, "NOAA's jeopardy analysis is contrary to the law because it does not address the prospects for recovery of the listed species."
http://www.sierraclub.com/pressroom/releases/pr2005-05-27.asp
The dams are a part of the immutable lansacpe? This is NOAA's attempt to not take responsibility for the danger that the existence of the dams with regards to the fish. Who built the dams? Mother nature?
In his ruling, Judge Redden pointed out four fundamental flaws in the November 2004 "biological opinion" presented by the National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which estimated the threats to the fish and made conservation recommendations. Chief among the flaws cited was the distinction that the agency drew, for the first time, between harm to the fish resulting from the dams' existence and the harm resulting from the operation of the dams.
The oceanographic agency argued in the November document that the dams were an immutable part of the landscape and that the agency's obligations to the fish under the Endangered Species Act extended only to accounting for and ameliorating those actions that it could control.
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/052705EB.shtml
The oceanographic agency is clearly try to shun responsibility. They see a difference between the harm to the fish resulting from from the dams' existence and the harm resulting from the operation of the dams. What? They are trying to use some ridiculous technicality to get out of protecting the salmon. It is absurd.
I am absolutely thrilled that Judge Redden had the courage to stand up to the adminstration and rule in accorance with the law.
Here is how the article on Truthout.org ends.
Bonneville Power Administration officials warned that if the environmental and fishing groups prevailed in reallocating river water operating costs would skyrocket.
The money. It all comes down to the money. They think that they can wave the fear factor of rising costs in the face of the people. Well, you know what? Not everything is about money, Bonneville Power Administration officials!
Sometimes people have to realize that their actions have screwed up the environment in which we live and that we may have to pay a financial price to protect the earth.