Endangered Species Act in Republican's sights

Like in Bush's first term, the area that will probably suffer the most is that of enviromental protections and regulations. George Bush used his executive order power to remove many regulations, and passed laws like the "Clear Skies Iniative" which reduce pollution by declassifying certain pollutants and pollutants. Now that Bush won re-election and Republicans increased their majorities in both houses of Congress and claim a conservative mandate (funny, I don't remember their environmental policy-or lack thereof- ever being given as a reason people voted for Republicans this year), they are setting the Endangered Species Act in their sights.

"'I think that the chances for improving and modernizing the act are very high in this Congress,' said Jim Sims of The Partnership for the West, a business group that advocates changing the act."

If by "improving and modernizing" they mean gutting the act, that's probably true. Let's be clear in stating that the only reason Republicans want to change this law and others is because they want to help the business interests that contribute to their campaigns, and certainly not for any concern about the places people live in.

What's interesting is the article states it is Republican Western governors that are pushing for environmental changes the hardest. There are many hunters in the West, ones that usually vote Republican, who support environmental protections. After all, there has to be somewhere and something left to hunt right? This might not apply to this particular law, but Republicans lack of conservational concerns can and should be used against them.

While it has been a common cause of the Right to brand environmentalists "tree huggers" (and there are a few crazies, but hardly the majority), the vast majority of Americans want regulations and protections to remain in place. It's just common sense. We only have one world and we have to protect it. The fact that conservatives can't even see that just confirms to me how far out there they really are.