Forty-four House Democrats Call on Obama Administration to Repeal Harmful Bush Endangered Species Regulations

Forty-four members of the House of Representatives, including seven committee chairman and several other high-ranking leaders, sent a letter Friday calling upon Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to rescind rules passed in the final days of the Bush administration that weaken the Endangered Species Act by exempting thousands of federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gases, from review under the Endangered Species. Congress passed legislation on March 10 giving Secretary Salazar power until May 9 to rescind the rules with the stroke of a pen. To date, Secretary Salazar has not said whether he will use the power granted by Congress, prompting the letter that strongly urged him to rescind the rules. “This is a major test for the Obama administration,” said Noah Greenwald, biodiversity program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Bush administration rules are a disaster for the nation’s endangered species and need to be undone.” The letter, which was led by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, and signed by among others House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, House Energy Independence and Global Warming Chairman Ed Markey, and House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Norm Dicks, states: “[W]e strongly oppose these regulations because they cut at the heart of the law that has protected and recovered endangered fish, wildlife and plants for the past 35 years,” adding that “[q]uick withdrawal of these flawed rules is essential,” because “[e]very day they remain in effect places endangered wildlife at greater risk of extinction.”...CBD