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Kempthorne taking a hard look at changes to ESA |
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The Bush administration is actively considering regulatory changes to the Endangered Species Act but has not made any final decisions, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said today.
"We want to see if there are some possibility for improvements," said Kempthorne, adding that regulatory changes are possible but not imminent.
Agency officials said they are still going through the 30,000 comments submitted through Interior's "cooperative conservation" listening sessions held across the country last summer. They are hoping to use those comments to shape any potential regulatory changes.
Regulations are the most likely venue for alterations to ESA this year, as the Democratic Congress is unlikely to take up the underlying law. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) have both said they are uninterested in rewriting the act.
"I don't believe there is going to be an opportunity to move that legislation this year," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), a cosponsor of last year's House effort, in an interview last week.
But even without a wholesale rewrite of the law in Congress, changes to regulations could be significant. These could include altering the definition of what constitutes "adverse modification" of habitat, the requirements for when wildlife officials must be brought in for consultation and the rules surrounding critical habitat.
"They could actually make some pretty radical changes," said John Kostyack, an attorney with the National Wildlife Federation,.
The 24 public meetings the administration is using to shape its response heard from landowners, environmentalists and regulated groups. They testified on how to implement President Bush's executive order, which called for Interior to "implement laws relating to the environment and natural resources in a manner that promotes cooperative conservation, with an emphasis on appropriate inclusion of local participation in federal decision making."
Mike Mittelholzer, of the National Association of Home Builders, said representatives from his group attended all 24 sessions. On ESA, the homebuilders would like to see the administration clarify its adverse modification definition, allow more general permits for wildlife consultations and define how it considers costs when making final decisions on critical habitat.
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