Liberty
Matters News Service
October 6, 2005
Pombo's ESA Bill Pass the House
Last week, the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act (HR 3824), passed the House with a margin of 36 votes. The bill reauthorizes the current law, but makes controversial changes to the statute. Floor debate focused largely on the property rights provision, which creates a program by which landowners could receive aid if their land is taken in order to protect species. Although many are not even certain how effective this provision will be at helping landowners, the mere inclusion of it was enough for green democrats to claim compensating people for taking their land was an "entitlement." In fact, the Congressional Budget Office anticipates this provision will cost less than 10 million over the 2006-2010 period, "because of likely delays in resolving conflicting interpretations of the law, implementing the necessary administrative mechanisms, and processing requests." However, this debate would have never taken place if landowners across the country had not raised substantial objection to Pombo's original draft, which would have expanded the acts powers to include invasive species and had no property rights protections whatsoever. At the end of the day, Pombo rose to defend the property rights provisions, stating, "If the federal government steps in and takes someone's land for a highway, we pay for it. And I don't see people running down here saying 'it's an entitlement." Now the debate is in the hands of the Senate, and it is unclear whether Pombo's bill will be the vehicle of choice or if an alternate version will be filed in the Senate.
Property rights gain traction in
overhaul of Endangered Species Act
World Wilderness Conference Meets in Alaska
This week, members of the World Wilderness Conference, the "protect and conserve anything but humans" club, are gathered to discuss "The practicalities of realizing benefits to human communities from protecting and sustaining wilderness, wildlands, and wildlife." Liz Close, representing the U. S. Forest Service, says she hopes we can learn from that and "bring people in this country closer to their wilderness." Close admitted current U.S. land use policy locks up vast areas of land against "settlement and development," forcing Americans to restrict their contact with nature to "visits" as opposed to policies of other nations that allows people to "live" in "wilderness" areas. Elena Daly, who helps oversee "national landscape conservation" for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), wants to focus on "how people interact with wildlands." Recent discoveries, wildlands proponents claim, that the [E]arth is a complex interconnected system requires land managers to learn "how we, as occupants of the planet, can help keep the planet healthy." The conference was sponsored by the WILD Foundation, a U. S. based organization working around the world to protect threatened wilderness areas and wildlife. (Go to www.TakingLiberty.us to learn more about the Wildlands and its affects on our nation.)
International Wilderness Conference
to Convene in Alaska
NEPA Lawsuits Provoke Congressional Inquiries
Amid claims that environmentalists' lawsuits blocked construction of flood control measures for New Orleans forty years ago, lawmakers in both Houses are looking for answers. The Army Corps of Engineers was prevented from building barriers to protect the City from the very storm surges that inundated New Orleans during Terrible Katrina and a House panel will seek to determine if the lawsuit compromised the City's defenses. Additionally, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, last week asked the Justice Department to produce information on every suit filed under the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) that blocked Corps of Engineers projects. The chairman of the House panel charged with improving NEPA, Rep. Cathy McMorris, (R-WA), said there are currently 1,500 NEPA lawsuits. "We are seeing more and more lawsuits tied to NEPA and the NEPA process," McMorris said. Left-wing Members of Congress call the investigations witch-hunts and part of a plot to destroy environmental protections. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) charged the Justice Department was trying to "smear environmentalists." Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), chimed in saying; [the Bush administration officials] "should be ashamed of themselves" for trying to shift blame on innocent environmentalists for Katrina's deadly rampage. A Justice Department spokesman said the department was only complying with a legitimate request from a Senate committee.
Katrina Has Role in Fight Against Environmental Law
Enviros Sue to Halt Levees, Again
Two environmental groups have filed suit to halt construction of the $22.5 million St. Peters' levee in the Mississippi River flood plain. The groups, Great Rivers Habitat Alliance and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, charged the Army Corps of Engineers failed to follow requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Clean Water Act when it agreed to allow construction of the four-mile Lakeside 370 levee. The groups claim the levees would increase the possibility of flooding, a claim attorneys for the Corps and the City of St. Peters, deny. The levee is designed to protect Lakeside 370 Business Park complex from a 500-year flood, according to the attorneys and would include building a new wetland and recreational lake. The city of St. Peters expects to realize thousands of jobs and millions in taxes from sale of Lakeside 370 to developer Leonard Kaplan, which probably explains the environmentalists' opposition.