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House: Major Re-Write of Endangered Species Act
The House on Thursday passed legislation that could greatly expand private property rights under the environmental law that is credited with helping keep the bald eagle from extinction but also has provoked bitter fighting.By a vote of 229-193, lawmakers approved a top-to-bottom overhaul of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, perhaps the nationâs most powerful environmental law... The rewrite faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Republican Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, head of the panel that oversees the law, has expressed concerns about the House bill... The bill would require the government to compensate property owners if steps to protect species thwarted development plans. It also would make political appointees responsible for some scientific determinations and would stop the government from designating "critical habitat," which limits development. This bill wins hearts and minds througout the western US, where the ESA has been used in insane ways to steal land, drive people out of their homes, confiscate water rights, and any number of other authoritarian offenses. Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-09-30 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=131000 |