14 DAY TRIAL // Just six weeks before Obama is sworn in, Bush seems to be desperately trying to do as much harm as possible to the environment, for reasons known only to him and, most likely, to those who fund these actions. In just 4 months, the White House revised legislation protecting endangered species and decided that they were too well-protected and that the law had to be changed.
So, the Bush administration decided to rule out the mandatory scientific evaluation that was until now necessary for projects to get federal approval. Wildlife experts were required to sign papers saying that a power plant or a factory did not pose an immediate threat to endangered or rare animal species in the vicinity of the construction site. Now, this step is voluntary, as if any polluter was willingly going to subject itself to a more-than-certain refusal from an environmental expert.
Furthermore, the new rule forbids federal agencies to try finding out exactly how polluters damage the environment, as well as the extent of their contamination. This means that coal-powered electrical plant owners, for example, are free to go about polluting the environment as much as they please, as no one will have the right to ask them anything about it. And while proponents of the new law, to be adopted in 30 days, say that pollution will be controlled by other means, it's obvious to anyone who can see through their lies that this is just another one of a long line of fire sales to the fossil fuel industry.
"This new rule is essentially a changing of the guard for determining how government projects will affect endangered species. Instead of expert biologists taking the first look at potential consequences, any federal agency, regardless of its expertise, will now be able to make decisions that should be determined by the best available science," says Union of Concerned Scientists Scientific Integrity Program director, Francesca Grifo.
President-elect Barack Obama already vowed to reverse these laws, and members of Congress also said they would support the measure, perhaps through the use of an obscure federal law, which would allow them to cancel newly-adopted federal regulations. Hopefully, they will do just that, so that these absurd directives that Bush set in place could be removed.