More Protection, Less Red Tape

August 21, 2008

By Dirk Kempthorne

Americans overwhelmingly support the conservation of endangered species. That's why Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973.

Congress, however, never intended this law to be the solution to global climate change. The law is already a complex source of red tape and litigation. The possibility of it becoming a tool for greenhouse-gas oversight -- as a consequence of the polar bear listing in May -- threatened to overwhelm agency experts and do more harm than good to the cause of conservation.

So the Interior Department recently proposed common-sense regulations that would prevent the law's consultation process from becoming a back-door mechanism to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Under the proposal, when there is no direct link between emissions from a project and harm to a listed species, federal managers are not required to consult under the species act. As a result, biologists from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service will spend more time on conservation, and less on meaningless paperwork.

The Bush administration has committed $45 million to research and other measures to address climate change. Employing the Endangered Species Act to manage greenhouse gases, though, would be a thoroughly inappropriate and ineffective use of the act.

Currently, federal agencies come to Fish and Wildlife and the Fisheries service for thousands of consultations each year. Most consultations would still occur under the proposed regulation. In every case where there is real harm to a species, consultation would occur.

However, for projects where no measurable harm of listed species can be documented, consultation would not be necessary. For example, an agency permitting a power plant in the lower 48 states would not have to consult with the Fish and Wildlife regarding the effects of the plant's emissions on polar bears thousands of miles away -- because scientists find no harmful links.

Agencies would need to use this consultation discretion judiciously, because agency officials often must defend their consultation decisions in litigation.

Imperiled species would continue to be strongly protected under the Endangered Species Act. We're merely freeing up our biologists to actually conserve and recover rare animals and plants.

Dirk Kempthorne is secretary of the Interior.

(c) Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.