The Conservation Report

The Interior Department is hell-bent on gutting Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In order to minimize the impact on endangered species, Section 7 requires developers or anyone potentially harming endangered species and their habitat to consult with federal officials to develop a plan for their proposed development project, so the ESA doesn’t actually mean zero development in most cases.  Nonetheless, weakening the ESA has been the Holy Grail for most developers, neoconservatives, and republicans.

The Interior Department has made a mockery of the public commenting process (or the democratic process) by reducing the normal commenting period of 90 days to 60 and then to a mere 30 days. Public outcry forced the Department to give the public 60 days to comment. In the end, the Department received 300,000 comments, and 100,000 of these comments were letters.

Previously, the Department decided to disallow commenting via email. This was a strategic move by the Department, because the Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must review all the comments and publish a final rule before the new president is elected. Barack Obama is against the changes to the ESA, so it is now or never for the neoconservative republicans President Bush has festooned throughout agencies such as the Interior Department. From TheNewsTribune.com, WA:

The Interior Department received 300,000 comments about the proposed changes, which supposedly were intended to prevent greenhouse gas emissions from threatening projects thousands of miles away.

About 100,000 of those comments were form letters; the ones that remain include comments from scientists, lawyers, other government agencies and members of Congress.

Actually, “comments” is something of a misnomer since the submissions can run 70 pages or more. At the pace Interior has established, each staffer will have to read and digest seven comments a minute to meet the deadline. Some paper shredders don’t work that fast.

The Interior Department’s review is sham and an insult to the people and organizations who took time to analyze the proposed rules and respond thoughtfully.

If the Bush administration succeeds in ramrodding its proposal through, it could take years for a new president to formally undo – if the next resident of the White House is so inclined.

Democrat Barack Obama is opposed to the rewrite of the endangered species law; Republican John McCain has not taken a position. McCain has said in the past that he is in favor of unspecified changes to the ESA.

The determination of this presidency to weaken wildlife protections is remarkable. Would that the same could be said for its commitment to fully vetting public policy.

To keep up with the deadline, the comment reviewers will have to review 6,250 comments per hour. From the Associated Press:

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne’s office, according to the e-mail, will be responsible for analyzing and responding to them.

The public comment period ended last week, which initiated the review.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., 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.”

At that rate, according to a committee aide’s calculation, 6,250 comments would have to be reviewed every hour. That means that each member of the team would be reviewing at least seven comments each minute.

It usually takes months to review public comments on a proposed rule, and by law the government must respond before a rule becomes final.

“It would seem very difficult for them in four days to respond to so many thoughtful comments in an effective way,” said Eric Biber, an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law.

Along with other law professors across the country, Biber sent in 70 pages of comment.

Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall told the AP on Tuesday that the short time frame for processing the comments was requested by Kempthorne and would set a record.

On the Net:

1. Consultations with Federal Agencies: Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act
2. Tell us what you think! (Quickly.) (By postal mail only, please.): Bush administration hustles through ESA rule change with minimal feedback; Obama opposes
3. Stifling Public Comment On Species Act
4. Comment On Endangered Species Act
5. 200,000 Letters In 32 Hours?
6. Bush administration bent on getting last licks in
7. Rush to read 200,000 comments on Species Act
8. FWS Staff to Review Seven Comments a Minute