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WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 2, 2011) – Yesterday marked the passing of the 90-day deadline for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to make its initial response to a petition seeking protection for African lions under the Endangered Species Act. The petition was filed on March 1 by a coalition of wildlife groups including Born Free USA/ Born Free Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
A coalition of environmental groups working on renewable energy development told a congressional committee today that the unprecedented expansion of wind, solar and geothermal generation over the past two years represented real progress toward a clean energy future and was the result of coordination between their groups, renewable energy companies and federal agencies.
Conservation groups formally notified the National Marine Fisheries Service today of their intent to sue the agency and three Gulf of Mexico states for failing to protect endangered sea turtles from entanglement and drowning in shrimp trawls.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 31, 2011) – The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition today to reconsider the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ban on domestic food tolerances for carbofuran, a deadly pesticide used in food production. FMC Corporation, the leading manufacturer of carbofuran, and a group of powerful agribusiness lobbyists including the National Corn Growers Association, have repeatedly challenged a 2009 rule from the Environmental Protection Agency to revoke all food tolerances. EPA has shown that dietary exposure to carbofuran is unsafe for humans. In 2006, EPA announced that all uses of carbofuran should be cancelled because of occupational and ecological risks to humans and wildlife.
WASHINGTON (May 26, 2011) – The U.S. Department of the Interior unveiled a preliminary set of proposals today to improve implementation of the Endangered Species Act. The proposals were outlined in response to an Executive Order (E.O. 13563) issued by President Obama in January that calls for federal agencies to review existing regulations “to determine whether any such regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed so as to make the agency’s regulatory program more effective or less burdensome in achieving the regulatory objectives.”
WASHINGTON (May 25, 2011) – Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) jointly introduced legislation today to gut the Equal Access to Justice Act. The bill, dubbed the Government Litigation Savings Act, would make it harder for private citizens, small businesses and nonprofit organizations to file suit against the federal government by limiting their rights to recoup attorney’s fees after winning a lawsuit in which the government’s position was not substantially justified.
Scientists today released a report announcing that a decrease of at least 5,000 red knots was observed at key wintering grounds in Tierra del Fuego, Chile from the previous year. Scientists reported population counts of wintering knots in other locations declined as well. The estimated current total population for the migratory shorebird is now unlikely to be more than 25,000.
The Senate today struck down a bill proposed by Senator McConnell (S. 953) in a decisive vote of 57-42.
Hundreds of scientists, 67 members of Congress, more than a dozen national conservation organizations and nearly 300,000 citizens are calling on the Obama administration today to strengthen protections for wildlife and water in its proposed forest policy.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 13, 2011) – Legislation (H.R. 1819) was introduced on May 10 by Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) that would amend the Endangered Species Act to eliminate protections for gray wolves in portions of the Northern Rockies that were not included as part of the final delisting rule published last week and eliminate the public review process for the proposed delisting of wolves in the western Great Lakes. In addition, the proposed legislation would remove federal protections for wolves in New Mexico and Arizona once the wolf population hits an arbitrary number without addressing persistent threats to their survival.