[env-trinity] House Votes To Gut Endangered Species Act!

[Daniel Bacher]

Hello

Here's the horrible news from Environmental Defense about today's vote to 
gut the Endangered Species Act in the House of Representatives. We now must 
do whatever we can to stop the Senate from passing Richard "Prince of 
Darkness" Pombo's "Extinction Act" or we can say goodbye to California's 
salmon, steelhead and other fish species!

Dan Bacher



Just moments ago, the U.S. House of Representatives hastily -
and narrowly - approved the first major changes to the
Endangered Species Act since 1988. This vote represents the most
serious attack on endangered species protections I have seen in
the nearly 30 years I have been working on these issues.

As the debate on this legislation moves to the Senate,
Environmental Defense is calling on leaders there to proceed
more cautiously. In the days and weeks ahead, we will be
enlisting your support as the fight in the Senate heats up.

Today's vote in the House takes direct aim at our endangered
species protections. It complicates both listing new species and
implementing recovery plans for species already on the list.

Unfortunately, the losers are the nation's bald eagles, ocelots,
grizzly bears, ivory-billed woodpeckers and other endangered
species. Learn more about the vote:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/ApaAATK16ztY/

The Senate has an opportunity to act more responsibly, and we
urge them to do so.

The Senate stepped between the overly-hasty House and rare
plants and animals once before. In 1978, the House was roiled
that the Supreme Court stopped construction of a dam in
Tennessee to protect endangered fish. It passed a bevy of
crippling amendments to the ESA. The Senate rejected virtually
everything the House had done and the Endangered Species Act
survived.

Because the Senate stood strong, whooping crane numbers have
increased ten-fold, California condors soar in the Grand Canyon,
wolves roam in Yellowstone and black-footed ferrets are once
again found in the Great Plains. The ESA has also helped restore
our national symbol, the American bald eagle, from a few hundred
pairs to over 8,000 pairs in the continental United States.

If successes such as these are to continue, the Senate must
again reject the overreaching of the House.

In the weeks and months ahead as the fight to protect endangered
species moves to the Senate, we need your help to win the battle
there, so please stand by.

Thank you for your commitment to protect America's natural
heritage.
Sincerely,
Michael Bean
Chairman of the Wildlife Program
Environmental Defense