I don’t agree with Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, with most issues, but he is apparently a supporter of the Endangered Species Act. Here is an excerpt from his book A Contract with the Earth with Terry L. Maple:

Environmental stewardship is everyone’s responsibility, including Congress’s. That is why I worked so diligently as Speaker of the House to protect the Endangered Species Act, historic legislation that has been mired in some controversy. Despite its flaws — and there are some — it is an essential conservation tool. In my evaluation of the legislation, I sought the advice of leading biologists such as E. O. Wilson and Thomas Eisner, esteemed members of the National Academy of Sciences. Good government depends on the counsel of our nation’s best scientists. The Endangered Species Act is an excellent example of the value of civility, consultation, and collaboration. Mediation and compromise by interior personnel in the field (by contrast with office bureaucrats) have produced good results, a function of shared values and democratic ideals.

On the Net: Gingrich calls for bipartisan environmentalism