http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=95061.0
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5,
2009
Contact: Kristina
Johnson
415.977.5619
Senate Votes to Scrap Bush-era Endangered Species Rules
WASHINGTON, D.C.
– Today, the U.S. Senate voted down an amendment aimed at
keeping Bush-era
endangered species regulations on the books.
Last week, the U.S. House of
Representatives passed a bill that would give
the Obama administration 60
days to withdraw endangered species regulations
pushed through by the Bush
administration in its last days in office. On
Tuesday, President Obama
announced he would restore the protections that
the Bush rules sought to
remove.
The Bush regulations removed requirements that independent
federal experts
be consulted on projects that could harm endangered species,
and included a
loophole designed to prevent agencies from addressing global
warming, even
when it has been identified as a threat to the survival of a
species like
the polar bear.
However, today, Senator Lisa Murkowski
(R-Alaska) and Senator Mark Begich
(D-Alaska) offered an amendment to the
2009 omnibus spending bill that
would have clogged the process and prevented
overhaul of the Bush
regulations.
The Senate voted 52-42 against the
amendment.
Statement of Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope
The President, the
House of Representatives, and the Senate have shown that
they all agree on
the importance of protecting America's wildlife for
future
generations.
For thirty years the Endangered Species Act has helped bring
wildlife like
the bald eagle back from the brink of extinction. President
Bush's attack
on endangered species protections would have made it much
harder to help
animals like the bald eagle survive.
President Obama
has shown his commitment to restoring and strengthening the
regulations that
have protected wildlife for decades. By supporting him,
the Senate has sent a
clear signal that science, rather than special
interests, should rule
decisions affecting our nation's wildlife. Tossing
out the Bush rules will
bring wildlife biologists back into the process of
deciding how to manage our
most threatened animals.
Kristina Johnson
Deputy Press
Secretary
Sierra Club
Office: (415) 977-5619
Cell: (541) 914-9744
85
Second Street - 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105-3459
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