>
> TO:            Sierra Club Wildlife, Endangered
> Species and Marine
> Activists
>
> FROM:          Bart Semcer, Associate Washington, DC
> Representative
>
> DATE:          July 12, 2002
>
>
> TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO OPPOSE H.R. 4840 AND
> MAINTAIN A STRONG
> ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT
>
> Your calls and letters to your Representative are
> needed today to stop
> legislation that would radically weaken America's
> ability to conserve it's
> Threatened and Endangered species.  Using the mask
> of "sound science" H.R.
> 4840 would amend the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to
> limit the use of the
> best available science in endangered species
> conservation, give special
> rights to industry, and increase the costs, delays
> and bureaucracy
> associated with implementing our nation's most
> important wildlife
> conservation law.  This anti-environmental
> legislation was passed out of
> the House Resources Committee this past Wednesday
> and could arrive on the
> House floor for a final vote in the next few weeks.
> Your help is needed to
> make sure Congress rejects H.R. 4840 and maintains
> America's ability to
> protect its endangered species.
>
> Please call your Representative today at (202)
> 224-3121and ask them to
> oppose H.R. 4840.
>
> If you do not know who your Representative is visit:
> http://congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/
>
> If you have the time, please send your
> Representative a letter asking them
> to oppose H.R. 4840.  Send your letters to your
> Representative at:
>
> United States House of Representatives
> Washington, DC 20515
>
> In your calls and letters you should point out the
> following:
>
>    H.R. 4840 limits the ability to use the best
> available science to
>    conserve endangered species.  H.R. 4840 requires
> government agencies to
>    "give greater weight" to some kinds of science
> over others, even if that
>    science is not the best available.  H.R. 4840
> requires that the
>    government adopt regulations establishing
> criteria for what kind of
>    science should be used in implementing the ESA,
> regulations that would
>    be developed by bureaucrats, not scientists.
> H.R. 4840 also requires
>    the science behind decisions to implement the ESA
> be peer reviewed by a
>    panel selected by a political appointee, as
> opposed to a neutral
>    scientific body, with the potential to taint
> endangered species
>    conservation with partisan agendas.
>
>    H.R. 4840 gives special rights to industry.  H.R.
> 4840 gives developers,
>    timber companies, mining companies, agribusiness
> and other industries
>    special access to the Secretaries of Interior and
> Commerce when their
>    activities are being reviewed for ESA compliance.
>  H.R. 4840 denies
>    similar access to individuals and communities who
> will be impacted by
>    those activities and any species declines that
> could result.
>
>    H.R. 4840 adds bureaucracy, cost and delay to
> implementing the ESA.
>    H.R. 4840 sets the bar so high for implementing
> species recovery plans
>    that it is possible many of them will never be
> implemented.  H.R. 4840
>    increases the amount of paperwork wildlife
> managers must complete when
>    they do not conserve species in the way that
> industry would prefer.
>
>    H.R. 4840 limits the ability of citizens and
> scientists to be active
>    partners in endangered species conservation.
> H.R. 4840 establishes a
>    system where citizens and scientists working to
> alert the government
>    that a species might be threatened or endangered
> with extinction could
>    be arbitrarily ignored by the government if it
> feels the warnings are
>    not supported by "clear and convincing" evidence.
>  The government would
>    ignore warnings without any investigation into
> their actual validity and
>    could use this provision to prevent conserving
> politically unpopular
>    species.
>
> PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY AND ASK THEM
> TO OPPOSE H.R. 4840!
>
> For More Information Contact Bart Semcer at
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Sample Letter
>
> Dear ______:
>
> I am writing to ask you to oppose H.R. 4840, a bill
> that would radically
> weaken America's ability to conserve it's Threatened
> and Endangered
> species.  H.R. 4840 was recently passed out of the
> House Resources
> Committee and is on it's way to a floor vote.
>
> H.R. 4840 would limit the ability to use the best
> available science in
> implementing the Endangered Species Act by requiring
> some forms of science
> to be given greater weight over others, even if
> those preferred forms were
> known to be flawed.  This bill would prevent
> scientists working to
> implement the ESA from deciding what is and is not
> good science and instead
> leave that decision to bureaucrats and political
> appointees with little or
> no scientific training.
>
> H.R. 4840 gives special rights to industry, allowing
> them special access to
> the Secretaries of Interior and Commerce when their
> activities are being
> reviewed for ESA compliance.  It would not give this
> same access to
> individuals and communities who may be impacted by
> those activities and the
> species declines that may result.
>
> H.R. 4840 will add cost, delay and bureaucracy to
> implementing the ESA.
> H.R. 4840 sets the bar so high for implementing
> species recovery plans that
> it is likely that most of them will never be
> implemented.  H.R. 4840
> increases the amount of paperwork wildlife managers
> must complete when they
> do not choose to try and conserve species the way
> industry would prefer.
>
> Finally, H.R. 4840 limits the ability of citizens
> and scientists to be
> active partners in endangered species conservation.
> It establishes a
> system where citizens and scientists working to
> alert the government that a
> species might be threatened or endangered with
> extinction could be
> arbitrarily ignored by the government if it feels
> the warnings are not
> supported by "clear and convincing" evidence.  The
> government could ignore
> warnings without any investigation into their actual
> validity, as is
> currently done.
>
> Please oppose H.R. 4840.
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Your Name
>
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