Utah Congressman Rob Bishop is edging ever closer to driving the Endangered Species Act itself to extinction.
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) recently shepherded five bills out of the Natural Resources Committee he chairs that would dismantle the law piece by piece. Many Republicans on the panel say the proposals are necessary changes that would modernize the 1973 law. Democrats and conservationists say the bills would whittle away the law’s ability to save wildlife from extinction.
The Endangered Species Act is one of the great success stories of the nation. While it’s true that most of the animals and plants that have been protected under the act are still there, the biggest reason for that is time. Plants and animals can’t be manufactured overnight. Bringing a population back from the brink can take many generations and some of those species listed by the ESA may actually be gone. The Center for Biodiversity took a look at 110 species protected by the ESA from all regions of the nation, and found that the Endangered Species Act was “remarkably successful.” Ninety percent of the species examined were on track to recover within the twenty-five period under the plan. Some of these species were down to a very small number of individuals, but are still on the road to reach a level that would take them off the list.
So, naturally, Republicans have worked almost from the beginning to destroy the ESA.
One measure would force the federal government to consider the economic impact of saving a species rather than make a purely scientific call.
Other proposed changes include forcing the federal government to rely on state data as the “best data,” even if states don’t bother to capture information on endangered species, and removing the right of outside groups to sue in support of the law. It’s a recipe for not just making the law toothless, but bear-less, bird-less, and very specifically … wolf-less.
Among other actions, the remaining bills would also remove protections for gray wolves in Midwestern states and block courts from ruling on the validity of the government’s decisions.
As with Scott Pruitt’s actions at the EPA, the proposals put forward by Bishop would create an unstoppable, unreviewable juggernaut … so long as that monster aimed only at letting endangered species die. Like National Parks and Monuments, the ESA has become a model to the entire planet. And bringing it down could also be a dark model to other nations.
The legislation is setting up a titanic clash over a law that forms the foundation of American wildlife protection and has been copied around the world.
And the possibility that it will happen, is all too real.
Unlike earlier GOP attempts to weaken the act, Bishop is poised to realize his ambition because of Republicans’ control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. A Senate committee that previously held hearings on modernizing the act is preparing companion legislation, and a president who favors oil-and-gas development on federal land is more likely to sign it into law.
Republicans are prepared to crush four decades of progress in restoring plants and animals that the ESA has saved. And they’ll celebrate when they do.