Alright kids, I'm pissed off again. What is it this time you ask? It's the so called "Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act". Ok, so the current Endangered Species Act is faulty. It doesn't really provide incentives for protecting animals and their habitats. And only something like 10% of the animals added to the list are removed and considered recovered.
The new act, which was passed today by the House, claims to be a modernization of the old act. It provides incentives for private land owners to conserve some habitats, and it also reimburses private land owners if the government tells them they cannot develop in order to save a species. sounds good enough, right?
Wrong. This bill gets rid of the government designated 'critical habitat' areas. It makes it easier for developers to develop land, as long as the set some of it aside as a habitat. For example, say an endangered bird lives in a marsh. Say a developer wants to develop 100 acres of said marsh. Under the new act, the developer could set aside like 5 acres of land as 'protected habitat' and develop the rest.
Now, I'm a strong supporter of private citizen's rights to the land they own. However, I feel that there has got to be some sort of common ground here. This new bill does not provide that common ground. It is just unacceptable. For more information, here is an article outlining what's gone down thus far.
So you guys, go and write your senators and tell them not to be asshats on this issue. To find out how your represenative voted on this issue, go here. If you're one of my BG peeps, Our represenative is Paul Gillmore: 1203 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515 (he voted for the bill, yell at him!)
If you live in Ohio your senators are Mike DeWine: 140 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 and George Voinovich: 524 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Write to these guys!
