Interior sends revised endangered species rule to OMB

The Interior Department is proceeding with a final rule revamping changes that the Bush administration made to Endangered Species Act regulations in its final months. The department sent a final rule on ESA consultations to the White House Office of Management and Budget yesterday, OMB said. The move suggests Interior will use authority given it by Congress in a recent spending bill to fast-track the regulatory rewrite without going through the normal full review process. At issue is the Bush administration's revision of a rule that required federal agencies to consult with Fish and Wildlife Service biologists before undertaking actions that might threaten a protected species. The Bush rule made biological consultations optional, allowing agencies to proceed with projects if they maintained there would be little threat to a species...NYTimes

The Bushies and the R's waited until the last minute for revisions to various environmental regs, and now they're getting their ass kicked.

If these revisions had been implemented early on, we would have 6+ years of data and experience to evaluate their effectiveness. That, however, would have taken brains and balls they apparently didn't possess.