As a nice parting shot on their way out of office George Bush's Interior Department finalized its move yesterday in crippling the Endangered Species Act. In short, this is what they did: they removed 35-year-old regulations requiring INDEPENDENT SCIENTIFIC review of federal projects in order to determine possible negative effects on plant and animal life. Now, the agencies constructing the projects--like dams, roads, oil and gas operations, power plants--can conduct their own interior assessments WITHOUT OVERSIGHT! That's right, because look what good deregulation has done us already.

Already the new regulations, or lack thereof, are being exploited by oil and gas companies to drill in previously protected Polar Bear habitats.

"The Bush administration has repackaged the same old lump of coal as a holiday present for the polar bear, and once again handed its friends in the oil industry a huge gift," said Kassie Siegel, climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity and lead author of the 2005 petition to list polar bears. "These regulations seem designed to drive the polar bear extinct."[LA Times]

Obama staffers have already intimated that they will re-strengthen the Endangered Species Act as soon as they have the power to do so, and attempt to roll back the damage of the Bush Administration. But what Bush and co. were able to do in a couple of months may take several years for the Obama team to fix. In the midst of the worst economic crisis in a 100 years it is good the Bush and co. are so concerned that they are spending their final days giving sweetheart handouts to their friends in the oil industry.

Oh, by the way, the president's office received over 200,000 letters begging them not to make these changes to the Endangered Species Act and they did it anyway. For the people and by the people...WUT...right.

--Ms Sharky