Liberal Debutante

Bush and his friends have quietly put a new spin on the Endangered Species Act. The “new spin” wouldn’t include protection over plants and animals that are thriving or have already disappeared. Instead the feds would protect only imperiled animals and only plants that are in an area of trouble. Where was the memo? On the interior of the website on Friday. Threatening to take the issue to court, the Center for Biological Diversity says that this “new policy” would mean that about 80% of the apx. 1300 species listed under the endangerment act would lose their protection.

That would make it easier to take the gray wolf off the federal threatened species list in Montana and Idaho, leaving it to the states to manage. And it would leave it listed in Wyoming, where the state has yet to adopt a protection plan that satisfies the federal government, Hall said.

…

“It’s just so clearly illogical and anti-wildlife that I can’t wait to get this before a federal judge,” Suckling said. “They are rewarding industry for driving populations extinct. Because as soon as you drive a population extinct (in a certain area) it is no longer on the table. It no longer counts toward whether a species is endangered.”

Via MSNBC and