Calculating the Impact of the Oil Spill on Wildlife

On a conference call today on the Obama administration’s efforts to determine the extent of natural resources damages from the oil spill, an Interior Department official gave reporters a sense of the impact of the spill on wildlife.

Of the 8,000 oiled birds found by the government in the aftermath More…

Streamlining Endangered Species Rules Might Be Illegal

Andrew Wetzler, head of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s endangered species project, has been blogging today about the Bush administration’s attempt to rush through new rules that could overhaul the Endangered Species Act. In one post, Wetzler argues that the White House’s actions could be illegal.

200,000 Letters In 32 Hours?

In what looks like an effort to rush through proposed rules to overhaul the Endangered Species Act, the Interior Dept. has said it plans on reviewing 200,000 public comments in just 32 hours, according to The Associated Press.

The agency actually received a total of 300,000 comments, but More…

Conservation Groups Not Letting Bush’s Endangered Species Act Go Unnoticed

This is at least the fourth time I’ve heard someone refer to the Bush administration’s proposed regulation on the Endangered Species Act as the “fox guarding the henhouse.”

It’s not just because endangered-species workers love animal analogies. It’s because the new rule gives government agencies the power, sans oversight, to More…