Help Save the Endangered Species Act

Last week, minutes after Bush moved to cripple the Endangered Species Act through new rules that would drive species extinct, the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit in San Francisco federal court to strike down the regulations. Along with our allies, we asked the court to protect endangered plants and animals by nullifying Bush's policies as quickly as possible.

Here's what the new rules will do, if they're allowed to stand: exempt greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, oil and gas drilling, and other harmful developments from the Endangered Species Act. Having just listed the polar bear and two Florida corals as endangered species due to global warming in response to Center lawsuits, the Bush administration is trying to handcuff federal regulators and the law by preventing actions needed to save these and other endangered species.

The new rules would also exempt tens of thousands of logging, mining, road building and development projects from Endangered Species Act review. The Bush policy knocks independent scientific review out of the process and lets the agencies that want to log and mine police themselves. In its typical denial and abuse routine, the Bush administration ignored the fact that this policy has already been tried and failed. In timber sales exempted from scientific review between 2004 and 2005, a full 68 percent violated the Endangered Species Act, harming spotted owls, salmon, and other species.

 

Click  HERE to help

 

Save the Endangered Species Act


Center for Biological Diversity

Call Congress Today to Save the Endangered Species ActUSCaptiol


Please take five minutes today to urge Congress to stop the Bush administration from gutting the Endangered Species Act. It may be the most important call you make this year.

This week, Congress has the opportunity to take action against the devastating changes the Bush administration is trying to push through at the 11th hour to cripple our nation's strongest species conservation law. Senator Barbara Boxer is holding a Congressional hearing entitled "The Bush Administration Environmental Record at the Department of Interior and Environmental Protection Agency" on Wednesday, September 24.

Congress needs to hear NOW from thousands of Americans who passionately support the Endangered Species Act.
Tell your representatives to go to the hearing and stop the administration from destroying the United States' most successful legal tool for saving species from extinction.

Dial the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for the offices of your members of Congress or click here to find your representatives.

Tips for your phone calls:
1. Let your representatives know who you are, which city you live in, and that you're calling to urge them to oppose the gutting of the Endangered Species Act.
2. Mention that the new regulations would:
• exempt thousands of potentially dangerous federal activities from review;
• eliminate the checks and balances provided by independent oversight.
3. Remind your representatives about Wednesday's environmental hearing and ask them to participate.
4. Thank your representatives for their time.

Please call your members of Congress today and tell them that Americans don't want the Endangered Species Act to be gutted. Then click here to let us know when you've made the call.

 


Kierán Suckling
Executive Director
Center for Biological Diversity

P.S. Click here to check out our Web site or paste the link below into your Web browser for more resources on the Endangered Species Act and the changes Bush is pushing for.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/esa_in_peril/index.html

Help End A Bear Poaching Plague

America’s bears are facing a poaching plague. Increasing demand for traditional medicines using bear parts like gallbladders is fueling a lucrative black market — and poachers are targeting bears in the U.S.

Representatives Raul Grijalva (AZ) and John Campbell (CA) have introduced legislation that will help bears by banning the trade in gallbladders at the federal level. The Bear Protection Act will end a patchwork of state laws that create an enforcement nightmare and allows the illegal killing of bears to continue.

Tell your Representative to become a cosponsor of the Bear Protection Act today:

 Click  HERE   please