ESA as a political weapon

[Deleted member 18333]

It is hard to debate for or against its effectiveness because you have to project what would have happened had it not been created. That involves a lot of speculation. The path many of these species were on in 1973 was not a good one, so almost anything can be considered a win. Another criticism is that a lot of the public focus is on the high-profile animals (bears, eagles, etc) and not the less warm and fuzzy ones like some rare snail that lives in a particular section of a particular river. I think habitat is key and the more niche the habitat the more likely it is for the animal to stay on the list, or disappear forever.

My point is many have a taken a turn in this country away from the "Administrative State" (sounds very 1984, doesn't it?). We certainly have a Supreme Court that leans that way. There are currently challenges not only to the ESA, but regulatory bodies like the EPA, SEC, etc. It is easy to take one case, like grizzlies, and say the ESA is broken so let's get rid of it. But to take away the Federal power to dictate what happens on Federal Land or regulate what gets dumped into a waterway has some serious downside impacts. Most recent example was FDIC/Fed Reserve and Silicon Valley bank. A lot of politicians (and citizens) want it both ways, take out the burdensome regulations but don't have anything bad happen. Unfortunately, nothing works that way.

I get what you are saying. Dont disagree with much. Again, I am not argueing in favor of getting rid of the ESA or remove Federal oversite of Federal land or waterways. Just saying I am very open to addressing the deficiencies of current Federal Laws and regulation, including the ESA.

 

[Oak]

USFWS barely has the resources to to complete ESA determinations, much less recover species. RAWA would help.

 

[COEngineer]

Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) is as much (probably more) of a problem than the ESA. It is likewise a good idea, but the abuses have turned it into more of a burden than benefit.