In a concession to Republicans intent on scaling back environmental regulations, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit on Monday proposed new limits on the Endangered Species Act.
Babbitt's proposal, which among other things would exclude small landowners from the obligation to protect threatened species, appears intended to save the Endangered Species Act from complete legislative dismantlement.The reforms would leave intact most essential elements of the law, which protects nearly 1,000 species of plants and animals ranging from the California condor and northern spotted owl to the Fresno kangaroo rat and the Contra Costa wallflower. California has more species on the list than any state except Hawaii.
Among the changes are plans to exempt individuals who own less than five acres of land, to provide states new powers to overrule federal decisions and to require more substantial scientific data to place a species on the endangered list.
Taken together, they would constitute the most significant changes since the act was adopted nearly 30 years ago. The reforms drew tempered praise from Republicans, who have called for more sweeping changes, and environmentalists. Both sides said the announcement reflected the enormous change of power in Washington since last November's election and a realization by the Clinton administration that it will have to make significant concessions in order to prevent the wholesale downscaling of environmental laws.
The new policy "is a small step in the right direction," said Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee and long a foe of environmentalists.
Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., called it "a realization that Congress is going to make changes, and if they want to contribute to those changes, they have to get on board."
Last week, Republicans passed a series of regulatory reforms that - without specifically identifying the environment - would scale back 25 years of environmental protections. One measure would force the government to compensate landowners if the value of their land is diminished due to the enforcement of federal rules such as the Endangered Species Act.
Babbitt conceded that if the measure were to survive the Senate and a presidential veto, it would render his proposed changes moot.
That legislation "would simply gut the Endangered Species Act," Babbitt said Monday, asserting the Republicans intentionally adopted the reforms under the guise of regulatory reform because they know that Americans are fond of protecting plants and animals.
"The Endangered Species Act is as American as apple pie," he said.
But Republicans said Babbitt's announcement would not dampen their zeal to make more substantive changes to the act.
"Absolutely not," said Pombo. "Now we have the secretary of interior admitting that (the law) has major problems." The reforms would have had little effect on several recent cases that have made the Endangered Species Act the subject of conservative scorn. For example, the new rules would probably not have affected the Kern County farmer who was prosecuted last summer for killing an endangered rat while tilling his field, or restrictions on Pacific Northwest logging to protect the northern spotted owl.