Ah, the term "endangered species" takes a whole new meaning with Bush & Co in charge of things now doesn't?
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Weeks after a groundbreaking scientific study said naval sonar appears to be killing marine mammals, the Bush administration yesterday won House approval to use sonar wherever Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sees fit.
***SNIP***
Negotiators from the House and Senate finished the bill at 2:15 a.m. yesterday. It runs to 712 pages of extremely complicated text, such as this bit from the part about marine mammals:
"The term 'Level A harassment' means harassment described in subparagraph(A)(i) or, in the case of military readiness activity or scientific research activity described in subparagraph (B), harassment described in subparagraph (B)(i)."
Members had about three hours to read the bill. To finish it, they would have had to take in about four pages per minute between the time it was released about dawn and debate began at midmorning.
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Wow I am impressed! I had no idea so many of my representatives were speed reading geniuses! No wonder people voted for them! [img]tongue.gif[/img]
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President Bush and the Defense Department won House approval Friday for easing some protections for endangered species and marine mammals.
One provision in the $401 billion defense bill amends the Endangered Species Act to prohibit setting aside any more "critical habitat" - lands needed for species to recover - on military installations that already have a plan for managing natural resources.
Another amends the Marine Mammal Protection Act to lower the threshold on what can be considered "harassment" of a marine mammal. Until now the law has prohibited anything annoying or potentially disturbing; the new standard would be anything threatening survival or reproduction.
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Congressional auditors last year found little evidence to support Bush administration claims that military training is hampered by environmental laws.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, on Friday called the provisions "common sense environmental reforms allowing our troops to properly train."
Not so, according to Karen Wayland of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. "Exempting the Pentagon from these laws," she said Friday, "will allow the military to threaten whales, dolphins and other marine mammals with sonar and underwater explosives, and destroy the habitat of the endangered birds and mammals that live on the 25 million acres it controls across the country - with next to no environmental review."
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How dare those congressional auditors find little evidence that military training is hampered by enviromental laws! They should know better! Bush & Co. are always right! We oughta round up those auditors as well as those loony enviromental-nuts and send them to re-education camp! [img]tongue.gif[/img]