Endangered Species Act,

From the Seattle Times: bq. Battle lines drawn on protection of species Western governors gathered last week to plan with the Bush administration and Congress how to change the Endangered Species Act, the 31-year-old law they say has cost developers, loggers and ranchers too much money and hassle for the few animals brought back from the brink of extinction. bq. "Just about everybody agrees the Endangered Species Act is broken," said Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., a cattleman turned chairman of the House Resources Committee. "The only way you are going fix it is with legislative change." bq. Pombo and Assistant Interior Secretary Craig Manson buoyed spirits at a meeting in a San Diego suburb Friday with the announcement that federal biologists have determined the sage grouse, a bird whose sagebrush territory sits atop oil and gas fields in 11 states, including Washington, is not threatened with extinction and does not need federal protection as an endangered species. The bird's numbers have plunged as agricultural and industrial development have intruded on nesting and breeding areas. And one of the reasons: bq. "The act has become something other than recovering species," Pombo said. "It's become a tool to stop growth, to stop mining, to stop logging. To stop a freeway from being built. It's become a tool that people are using to accomplish other goals." So true -- the law came about with good intentions. There was no legal way to preserve an area from development so by finding a critter whose survival depended on that particular bit of property, enviros were able to put a legal road-block against development. Unfortunately, this has come into common use and the population models that have been accepted are those put forth by the biologists working for the enviros. Basically, they have been able to write their own ticket. Time to balance the books a bit here. Logging is a renewable resource (just one with a 30-50 year time-line), mining is a lot less damaging to the environment than it once was and petroleum and natural gas drilling is downright benign with today's technologies (angled drilling) People grouse at the gas pump but still get a "Bambi Knee-Jerk" reaction every time someone mentions additional prospecting or (shudder) Nuke plants.