Editor’s Note: With the Bush Administration’s remaining time in office now measured in hours, we asked CPR Member Scholars to remind us of some of the less publicized moments of the Administration’s record on environmental issues. Following is the second of several entries that we’ll run on CPRBlog before President Bush returns to Texas. Below, Dale Goble responds to Dan Tarlock’s earlier post on the Bush Administration’s record on biodiversity and endangered species protection.
It is also “interesting” that the FWS has proposed the listing of more species in the last couple of months than they have in their entire tenure up to that point. Many if not most of those species are not indigenous to the United States. This allows the Bush Administration to up their nominal listings without impinging upon actions within the United States. It has the additional advantage of requiring the next administration to expend resources dealing with their proposals. This latter point compounds the problems created by needing to undo the deeds of Julie MacDonald — the FWS is likely to spend much of the next 3 or 4 years simply undoing MacDonald’s deeds.
