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Help Save 1.800.SUICIDE


Good News: U.S. Agency May Reverse 8 Decisions on Wildlife

by rcs1

......it's Friday nite news dump time.  Proof positive that all our hammering is paying off.  I'll take it!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/washington/21interior.html?ref=us
excerpt:

WASHINGTON, July 20 -- The Interior Department said Friday that it would review and probably overturn eight decisions on wildlife and land-use issues made by a senior political appointee who has been found to have improperly favored industry and landowners over agency scientists.

The appointee, Julie A. MacDonald, resigned on May 1 as a deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, after an internal review found that she had violated federal rules by giving government documents to lobbyists for industry. The agency's inspector general also found several instances in which Ms. MacDonald browbeat department biologists and habitat specialists and overruled their recommendations to protect a variety of rare and threatened species.

H. Dale Hall, the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said he had asked the agency's regional managers to submit for review cases in which Ms. MacDonald might have inappropriately bent the process to fit her political agenda. Mr. Hall winnowed the list to eight instances in which he said he expected that her actions would be reversed.

"We wouldn't be doing them if we didn't suspect the decision would be different," Mr. Hall said in a telephone conference with journalists. "It's a blemish on the scientific integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior."

The species that could receive additional protection are the white-tailed prairie dog, Preble's meadow jumping mouse, 12 species of Hawaiian picture-wing flies, the arroyo toad, the Southwestern willow flycatcher, the California red-legged frog and the Canada lynx. The extent of Rocky Mountain habitat protection for the jumping mouse is also under review.


commentary :: :: :: buzz-it!
Display:
Must be the stars are aligned right....
The Dick must be having a cow.........MMS screwd up and got caught!
here

excerpt:

   
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A federal appeals court has ordered Shell Oil to stop its exploratory drilling program off the north coast of Alaska at least until a hearing in August.

The order, issued Thursday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, comes after the federal Minerals Management Service in February approved Shell's offshore exploration plan for the Beaufort Sea.

"Vessels currently located in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas shall cease all operations performed in furtherance of that program, but need not depart the area," the order said.

Opponents contend that the Minerals Management Service approved Shell's plan without fully considering that a large spill would harm marine mammals, including bowhead and beluga whales. They say polar bears could also be harmed, and they question whether cleaning up a sizable spill would even be possible in the icy waters.




by avahome on Sat Jul 21, 2007 at 01:22:10 PM EST
hope that maybe some of the damage, done by Bush appointees in these critical departments, can and will be reversed

by roxy317 on Sat Jul 21, 2007 at 04:21:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
would follow suit and review and repeal the policy decisions made my Bush appointees ...

by roxy317 on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 10:52:46 PM EST
my = by

by roxy317 on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 10:53:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
sunlight can be!

by Cho on Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 10:56:29 PM EST

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