These people never seem to let fact and science get in the way of policy. I guess they think that those lazy bastards that are dying off just need to get with the program or find a corporate sponsor. If only they were Bush-Cheney Pioneers, their voices would be heard.
"Federal officials have added an average of 9.5 species a year to the endangered list under President Bush, compared with 65 a year under President Bill Clinton and 59 a year under President George H.W. Bush. They have designated as "critical habitat" only half the acreage recommended by federal biologists. And they are transferring key decision-making powers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to other agencies with different priorities.
"Instead of taking the Endangered Species Act head on, the administration is working to destroy the effectiveness of it through executive rule changes," said Brian Nowicki, a conservation biologist at the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, which promotes species conservation. "They can't just attack it outright, so they try to stop it out of the spotlight."
"This administration has set new records in terms of the perversion and distortion of science," said John Kostyack, the federation's senior counsel.
