{"id":1687,"date":"2006-03-09T18:48:51","date_gmt":"2006-03-10T01:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/leave-no-industry-behind-the-endangered-endangered-species-act\/"},"modified":"2006-03-09T14:49:34","modified_gmt":"2006-03-09T21:49:34","slug":"leave-no-industry-behind-the-endangered-endangered-species-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/leave-no-industry-behind-the-endangered-endangered-species-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Leave No Industry Behind — The Endangered Endangered Species Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there is anything the Radical Right hates more than the New Deal (and all of FDR’s legacy), it’s the Endangered Species Act. mjh<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ES&T Online News: Hidden ties: Big environmental changes backed by big industry<\/a> by PAUL D. THACKER<\/p>\n

Lobbyists and industry officials who once pushed for the president\u2019s Healthy Forests legislation now collaborate with Rep. Pombo to alter the Endangered Species Act.<\/p>\n

Since President Bush took office, Republicans have successfully pushed through major reforms that target regulations for power-plant emissions and the management of federal forests. During his 2004 campaign for reelection, the president praised his Healthy Forests initiative as \u201ca good, common-sense policy.\u201d This year, the Republican-led Congress is gearing up for yet another \u201ccommon-sense\u201d reform to a major piece of environmental legislation\u2014the Endangered Species Act (ESA). …<\/p>\n

The movement to alter ESA is being led in Congress by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), a rancher from California and the powerful chair of the House of Representatives\u2019 Committee on Natural Resources. …<\/p>\n

To write the bill, Pombo called on the help of Steve Quarles, a lobbyist who works for the timber industry. \u201cI spent a great deal of time with Pombo\u2019s staff,\u201d Quarles told ES&T, and during that time he helped write the bill. …<\/p>\n

Practically a Washington, D.C., institution, Quarles has long worked to shape environmental laws to favor corporations. During the debate over the president\u2019s Healthy Forests legislation, Quarles lobbied for its passage on behalf of the American Forest and Paper Assoc., the largest trade group for the forest products industry. Previously, he represented the American Forest Resource Council (AFRC), a group that lobbies for management of public lands to favor industry.<\/p>\n

Wigley, too, has a long history with the timber industry. … For the 2002 elections, Wigley raised $327,100 from timber companies, such as Weyerhaueser and Boise Cascade. This money was then handed out to Republicans running for state offices in Oregon. Before joining OFIC, Wigley worked as a press officer for Georgia Pacific, one of the world\u2019s largest forest-products corporations. His biography also states that he is a graduate of the American Campaign Academy, a group created by advisers to former Rep. Newt Gingrich to train Republican political operatives. …<\/p>\n

Jim Peterson of the industry-funded Evergreen Foundation was quoted calling Project Protect a \u201chardball approach\u201d to get the president\u2019s bill signed. \u201cIt\u2019s not a warm, fuzzy PR campaign,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a fight to the finish. We intend to work behind the scenes with industry associations with much of the PR off the radar screen by design.\u201d …<\/p>\n

Wigley wrote in February 2005, he revealed his own views on Project Protect. \u201cWhen I directed the healthy forests battle two years ago, I had to change the way the forest products industry talked,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe didn\u2019t change our goals\u2014just the way we communicated.\u201d …<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people call it Astroturf,\u201d said Ken Gross, a lawyer who specializes in ethics and campaign-finance cases. Unlike traditional grassroots groups that may consist of local activists meeting in someone\u2019s living room, these new operations are backed by corporate money and run like professional political campaigns. \u201cIt\u2019s not mom-and-pop; it\u2019s highly sophisticated, with well-compensated people. …”<\/p>\n

An October 2005 Harris Poll found that 74% of Americans believe that \u201cprotecting the environment is so important that requirements and standards cannot be too high, and continuing environmental improvements must be made regardless of cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate urged to safeguard species act<\/a> By Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer<\/p>\n

As a Senate committee prepares to take up revisions to the Endangered Species Act, nearly 6,000 biologists from around the country signed a letter Wednesday urging senators to preserve scientific protections in the landmark law.<\/p>\n

The House passed an Endangered Species Act rewrite last year that many scientists and environmentalists viewed as extreme. Interest groups are lobbying to ensure that legislation expected soon from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will be an improvement.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, recent legislative proposals would critically weaken” the law’s scientific foundation, said the letter organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The 5,738 signers included six National Medal of Science recipients.<\/p>\n

“For species conservation to continue, it is imperative both that the scientific principles embodied in the act are maintained, and that the act is strengthened, fully implemented, and adequately funded.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there is anything the Radical Right hates more than the New Deal (and all of FDR’s legacy), it’s the Endangered Species Act. mjh ES&T Online News: Hidden ties: Big environmental changes backed by big industry by PAUL D. THACKER Lobbyists and industry officials who once pushed for the president\u2019s Healthy Forests legislation now collaborate … Continue reading Leave No Industry Behind — The Endangered Endangered Species Act<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dump-duhbya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}