Bush Administration Issues Final List of Candidates for Protection as Endangered Species

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The Bush administration today issued its final notice of review identifying 251 species that are candidates for protection as endangered species. The first such list produced under the Administration in 2001 included 252 species, indicating that although some species have been removed and others have been added, the administration has not made substantial progress in reducing the list. To date, the Administration has protected a mere 61 species, for a rate of less than eight species per year. This compares to 522 protected under the Clinton administration, a rate of 65 species per year; and 231 species protected under the George H.W. Bush administration, a rate of 58 species per year. The low rate of listing under the George W. Bush administration occurred despite a budget for the listing of species that has risen from just over $3 million in 2002 to more than $8 million in 2008. During his two-and-a-half-year tenure, Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne has overseen the listing of just one species — the polar bear. “Secretary Kempthorne surpasses even James Watt as the most anti-environmental Secretary of Interior in history," Greenwald said....