---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 18:50:46 -0400
From: Roger Featherstone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: ACTION ALERTS - GORTON and POMBO
ACTION ALERT
GORTON "EXTINCTION" BILL TO BE INTRODUCED
On Monday, May 8, 1995, at 10:00 eastern time, Slade Gorton (R-WA) will
introduce
his "extinction" Bill. This bill would completely trash the ESA and was
written by
extractive industries.
Please contact your senators now and urge them to not sign on to the this Gorton
bill. The fewer senators that are original cosponsors of Gorton's
extinction bill,
the more radical his position will become.
BACKGROUND:
Gorton's bill is a "radical and totally unnecessary departure from current law"
according to Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's
Associations.
Among other provisions Gorton's bill would:
** Section 602: Allows the counting of hatchery bred fish and
captive-bred
wildlife populations as meeting conservation goals. Viable populations of
animals
would no longer have to be maintained in the wild. For fishermen, this
would mean
that genetically inferior captive-bred hatchery fish could totally replace
native
wild fish throughout the country. No effort would have to be made to
protect any
species in the wild, so long as captive breeding programs (i.e., zoos and
hatcheries) existed.
** Section 201: Unlike current law, one of the permissible "conservation
objectives" could be planned extinction. This is a radical departure from the
current ESA where the purpose is to preserve rather than to destroy. In
many cases
"distinct population segments" would also no longer be protected -- this means
species could be wiped out throughout most of their range, so long as they still
existed in abundance somewhere else on earth. This sort of loophole could
be used,
for instance, to allow the complete extinction of Pacific salmon throughout the
United States because the same species (i.e., chinook salmon) is in abundance
elsewhere -- like the Siberian coast!
** Sections 402 & 404: It would be almost impossible to designate or
protect
critical habitat under Gorton's bill. Yet without protection of their critical
habitat species simply cannot survive. Thousands of species (including some
vitally
important for protecting the human food chain and for commercial uses) could go
extinct under this provision. It would be almost impossible to "get ahead
of the
extinction curve" through proactive habitat protection under this bill.
** Sections 201, 302 & 501: The current consultation process would
be waived
in many cases or severely curtailed, especially if a general "conservation plan"
were in place. The consultation process is what helps identify, prevent and
mitigate problems to begin with, and which curtails activities which would lead
toward actual extinction. Yet because (as redefined) "conservation plans"
would not
necessarily prevent extinction, under this bill any number of federal activities
which contribute directly to extinction could go forward.
** Sections 101, 104, 309 & 501: Gorton's bill adds costly,
redundant and
time consuming red tape to the whole process, including (for cooperative
agreements)
the requirement of official public hearings in each county affected. Had this
provision been in place when the bald eagle was listed, this would have required
over 10,000 public hearings at an expense of tens of millions of dollars and
delayed
recovery efforts by many years! "Independent peer review" panels as defined
in the
bill could also contain representatives of regulated industries with a direct
financial stake in the outcome with a clear conflict of interest.
** Sections 405, 501 & 609: Requires taxpayer dollars to be used to
pay 50
percent of various costs that corporations and other nonfederal entities
incur in
merely complying with their basic responsibilities under the law. This
creates a
huge taxpayer burden by paying companies not to wantonly pollute or deliberately
destroy wildlife. This is very much like paying "protection money" to
racketeers
not to beat you up or burn your house down.
You may call (202) 224-3121 to talk to your senator.
POMBO ANNOUNCES ESA TASK FORCE HEARING FOR MAY 10, 1995
Richard Pombo (R-CA) who heads the Resource Committee's ESA Kangaroo Court
(OOPS!, I
mean Task Force) will hold a new task force hearing on May 10, 1995, in
Washington,
DC. This hearing will be open to members of Congress only.
Please contact your member of Congress and ask him/her to speak at the
hearing for a
strong ESA. Members of Congress have until May 8, 1995, to sign up to speak
at this
hearing. Your Congressperson may want to speak not only about a strong ESA, but
about the way that Pombo's committee has catered to the extractive
industries and
scoffed at "ordinary citizens" who support the ESA. Your Member might also
want to
mention how one-sided the task force hearing have been.
We will release (via e-mail) background information about some of the more
outrageous examples of a task force out of control on Monday.
You may call your Member of Congress at (202) 224-3121.
