Change Sought in Endangered Species Act

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- The California rancher and congressman whose committee oversees environmental policy wants to enlist some home-state muscle in his campaign to rewrite the Endangered Species Act.

House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said he'll seek backing for his legislative efforts from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other Western state chief executives during a meeting this weekend of the Western Governors' Association.

"I think that having the governor on board is critical for a lot of different reasons, particularly the impact that the act has had on California, and I think he also helps influence a lot of people," Pombo said in an interview.

Pombo's committee passed bills this year that would change the 30-year-old act by requiring peer review before a species can be listed as endangered and allowing critical habitat to be designated for species only when "practicable."

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-endangered-species,0,3947574.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[bo44]

1. richie is my congressman

He's the son of a bunch of dairy farmers who want to eliminate all regulatory barriers to selling off their land for development in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties. He is a fucking twit.

[Qanisqineq]

2. this makes me so sad

Why do republicans like to destroy things? When they aren't destroying countries (ours and others), then they are destroying habitats, the environment, helping species to go extinct. I think the next four years of Bush is going to be the most devastating on the environment. Most of the other effects of Bush can be reversed, with the exception of thousands of dead people, but the environment takes years and years to recover and once a species is extinct there is nothing modern science can do.

[Dr Batsen D Belfry]

3. I was hoping they would add

Democratic leadership with a spine and cojones to the ES list

DBDB