Some good news for the environment...

I have few good things of note in regards to the environment today. It comes as no surprise to many of the readers here that the Bush Administration has made it part and parcel to bend the scientific findings to fit its policies, whether it be silencing climatologists on the severity of global warming, effectiveness of contraception, you name it. Science is yet another reality-based inconvenience to the administration. Thankfully, two things have happened to turn back the tide a bit.

First off, the AP is reporting that one of the people responsible for manipulating the science is resigning:

Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, submitted her resignation letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a department spokesman said Tuesday.

MacDonald resigned a week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she violated the Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The inspector general's report said MacDonald tried to remove protections for a rare jumping mouse in the Rocky Mountains based on a questionable study, and reduced by 80 percent the amount of streams to be protected to help bull trout recover in the Pacific Northwest.

MacDonald also pressured the Fish and Wildlife Service to alter findings on the Kootenai River sturgeon in Idaho and Montana so dam operations would not be harmed, the report said.

Good riddance. And as you probably know, a goal of the right-wingnuts has long been to dismantle the Endangered Species Act, because for these people, the needs of the economic world always take precedence over the needs of the natural world. Nature is only measured by the amount of money to be made on it, which is one of the fundamental problems of capitalism. Anyways, Bushco is trying to get some new rules passed that would radically weaken the ESA. Thankfully, it seems like some Senators are going to put the brakes on it...

A Bush administration plan to change rules of the Endangered Species Act protecting American wildlife drew pointed questions on Wednesday from five U.S. senators, who called the proposed changes "troubling."

Environmental activists raised alarms about the draft rules change last month, saying the revisions would weaken the act so much that about 80 percent of the 1,300 species now on the endangered list would lose protection.

The National Audubon Society's Mike Daulton criticized the Bush administration. "The public is clamoring for conservation solutions to problems like energy and global warming and what they're getting are half-baked ideas like gutting the Endangered Species Act and shutting down wildlife refuges," Daulton said in an e-mail.

The Senators have sent a letter asking some important questions of the Secretary of the Interior. Now, before some of you jump down my throat about impeachment and supplemental bills and such, there is no denying that there is finally some sort of semblance of oversight going on in the Senate and House. I am well aware that it is not yet at the level we want it to be, but between the Gonzales matter, the recent Tillman/Lynch propaganda hearings, and a host of others, it is quite apparent that there is finally some oversight happening. Let's just hope it continues and escalates.