Huh?

[Kulaf]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156870,00.html

If anyone else has any links to the debate on this issue please post em as I am confused. It seems like Pombo wants to strengthen the Endangered Species act.....and Dems are fighting it.

[Burz]

Would make Dems endangered species then?

[Kulaf]

Here are the claims in the report:

1. After more than 30 years only 10 of nearly 1300 domestic species have recovered and, in many cases, the ESA was not the primary factor in the recovery. (Report pages 9 – 12)

2. According to the FWS’s most recent report to Congress, 77 percent of listed species are classified in the Service’s lowest ‘recovery achieved’ category, having only met 0-25 percent of recovery objectives. Only 2 percent fall into the highest ‘recovery achieved’ category, having met 76-100 percent of recovery objectives. (Report pages 19-21)

3. According to the FWS’s most recent Report to Congress, the recovery status of 60 percent of listed species is either ‘uncertain’ or ‘declining’; 30 percent are classified as stable; 6 percent are classified as improving; and 3 percent (35 species) are classified as possibly extinct.

4. Of the 33 species reclassified by the FWS in the Act’s history, only 10 domestic species were downlisted (status from endangered to threatened) because the species had improved. (Report page 12-16)

5. Erroneous data/data error has significantly adversely affected the implementation of the ESA.

At least 15 of the 33 domestic species that have been delisted in the Act’s history were removed from the list because of original data error/erroneous data. (Report page
Erroneous data was a contributing factor in at least 10 of 19 (over 50 percent) of the downlisted domestic species. (Report pages 12-14)
Expenditures by federal, state, and private parties on species listed based on erroneous data could total hundreds of millions of dollars. Funds spent on erroneously-listed species could be otherwise directed to species that are actually endangered or threatened. (Report pages 46-51)
6. According to the FWS, in 30 years of implementing the ESA, the service has found that the designation of statutory critical habitat provides little additional protection to most listed species, while consuming significant amounts of conservation resources. The Service’s present system for designating critical habitat is driven by litigation rather than biology. (Report page 56)

7. The current program clearly costs billions of dollars, but insufficient economic information is collected to reasonably determine the true cost of the law, as all federal, state, and private expenditure reporting cannot be assessed.


8. Given the Act’s poor recovery rate, the pool of future possible additions, current agency species data (77% of species having achieved only 0 to 25% of recovery), litigation demands and conservative consideration of cost data, the current program is not sustainable.

In addition to the 1,264 currently listed species, the FWS now recognizes an additional 283 species as candidates for listing. (Report page 29)
The FWS’ current litigation workload for listing and critical habitat includes (1) 34 active lawsuits with respect to 48 species (2) 40 court orders involving 8 species and (3) 36 notices of intent to sue involving 104 species. (Report page 29, 66-71)
“The ESA is obviously in need of a legislative update that will focus the law on strengthening results for species recovery,” Pombo said. “This report will be an invaluable guide as Congress considers the best way to do just that. It has certainly become a question of how we improve this law, not a question of if.”

[Aabe]

Either the objecting agencys stand to lose some money or power OR
The data has been been creatively put together to make a case. Have to wait to see a reasoned response to know for sure.

[Relbeek Einre]

It's very likely that it's going to be a pretext to gut the act with a misleading title a la "Clear Skies Initiative."

[Kulaf]

I think I see where he is going. I think he is arguing that spending the money they spend on this program....and then not having the resources in place to measure the results it like tossing money down a well.

The guy is from CA. Not many CA politicians get reelected if they are not environmentally aware.

[Relbeek Einre]

Mark my words, Kulaf. There are plenty of conservative nuke-the-whales districts in California.

[Kulaf]

11th District is a bay area burb.

Bills he has sponsored:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/R ... :@1(Pombo):

[Relbeek Einre]

There are conservative bay area burbs. You'll see.

[Embar Angylwrath]

There are conservative bay area burbs. You'll see.

California's 11th district is well-heeled and conservative (at least fiscally). Home to a lot of developers. Developers that are frustrated with what the Endangered Species Act does to thier development plans when they discover one on or near their planned development.

Its a big issue in California. Many of the development restrictions set forth by the state are predicated on standards set by the ESA. Remove those standards, and it gets lot easier to get your permit through California Fish and Wildlife (or whatever they call that agency nowadays).

He's trying to remove obstacles to development in California by attacking regulations at the Federal level, becuase getting that stuff done at the state level in California is nearly impossible.

[Burz]

Auto Left Wing Moonbat responded to Endangered Species Act:

"Endangered"!!!! Wouldn't you agree, it's like 1968 all over again!!! If you AREN't DISSATISFIED and MALODOROUS about this Boy KING, THEN um you are a Redumblican!!!!! Since 1996, 15,817 despoiled Puerto Ricans HAVE been DEFENESTRATED in Saigon!!!!! I REJECT pollution! It goes without saying, it looks like we can say GOODBYE to sustainable development and union wages! Nice knowing you!