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The Bush administration has made it more difficult to classify species as endangered and this has happened since 2001. This would include both plants and animals in the United States, and what this administration has done done is it has changed the procedure and policy concerning the Endangered Species Act to make it more burdensome to get anything placed on the list.
As if that is not bad enough, as is with the Bush Crime Syndicate, there has been many instances of arm twisting and other shallow means to keep some species off of the list which scientist say should have been added, such as the Black-Tailed Prairie Dog.
The documents show that personnel were barred from using information in agency files that might support new listings, and that senior officials repeatedly dismissed the views of scientific advisers as President Bush's appointees either rejected putting imperiled plants and animals on the list or sought to remove this federal protection.
Officials also changed the way species are evaluated under the 35-year-old law -- by considering only where they live now, as opposed to where they used to exist -- and put decisions on other species in limbo by blocking citizen petitions that create legal deadlines.
The article goes on to state that during Bush's term as President, only 59 species have been placed on the list and that the current Interior Secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, has not declared even one domestic species as threatened or endangered in the two years that he has been in this office.
In a sign of how contentious the issue has become, the advocacy group WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking a court order to protect 681 Western species all at once, on the grounds that further delay would violate the law. Among the species cited are tiny snails, vibrant butterflies, and a wide assortment of plants and other creatures.
"It's an urgent situation, and something has to be done," said Nicole Rosmarino, the group's conservation director. "This roadblock to listing under the Bush administration is criminal."
Developers, farmers and other business interests frequently resist decisions on listing because they require a complex regulatory process that can make it difficult to develop land that is home to protected species. Environmentalists have also sparred for years with federal officials over implementation of the law.
Nevertheless, Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton added an average of 58 and 62 species to the list each year, respectively.
Administration officials -- who estimate that more than 280 domestic species should be on the list but have been "precluded" because of more pressing priorities -- do not dispute that they have moved slowly, but they dispute the reasons.
Sure they are going to dispute the reasons for their incompetence. This is the party of nothing but excuses. Anyway, these assholes even had the nerve to de-list the bald eagle as threatened in Southern Arizona, but a smart judge in Phoenix changed all of that on March 5. You can read more about the Bush boys activities with our domestic species Here
I would be willing to bet that the slow pace on the part of Interior to list threatened or endangered species has something to do with more than a few of Bush's corporate friends not wanting to have to deal with the regulations they would face if certain plants and/or animals were listed who happened to be in areas of concern for the companies.
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