Time To Rewrite Endangered Species Act

Congress needs to destroy the habitat of the mutant Endangered Species Act.

The Endangered Species Act morphed into a monster unrecognized by its sponsors. This metastasized act should be the poster child for out-of-control government regulations.

Congress handed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service the Endangered Species Act to enforce in 1973. The Fin and Bunny Club bureaucrats took a reasonable law and twisted it into a weapon used to bully property owners and taxpayers. They know best, of course.

Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., was an original sponsor and major force behind passage of the Endangered Species Act. But something went wrong. Hatfield now says the Endangered Species Act “is being applied far beyond the scope of what any of us who helped adopt it intended.”

Members of the new 104th Congress should demonstrate that they heard the November message from America’s voters. They should put the Endangered Species Act at the top of their regulatory reform agenda.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison wants Congress to freeze any new regulatory action under the Endangered Species Act until the law can be rewritten. That’s a start.

When Hatfield and others campaigned for passage of the Endangered Species Act, many Americans were concerned with the survival of the bald eagle, America’s national symbol. They also were concerned with the possible extinction of the whooping cranes and the majestic gray whale.

The law successfully pulled bald eagles, alligators, mountain lions and other prominent species from the brink of extinction. But it goofed by giving federal regulators the authority to jump into action to protect species at the request of local citizens. No-growthers, anti-property extremists and radical environmentalists have successfully used this provision to stop construction of roads, bridges, businesses and homes across the nation.

The Endangered Species Act has been used to stop economic development, destroy jobs and strip property owners of land value and property rights in order to save a bewildering list of unheard-of bugs, plants and animals.

There are about 800 species of critters and plants on the endangered species list. Thousands more await consideration for government protection. But actually, the government doesn’t pay to protect and preserve the habitat for endangered rats or microscopic snails. Like unfunded mandates, that burden is pushed off on landowners and local taxpayers. The government’s job is to threaten and punish.

The act needs to be rewritten to establish national priorities for species protection based on recommendations of wildlife experts after balancing the costs to society, including land values, jobs and taxes.

And if Congress determines that it is in the national interest to protect a species, it should appropriate the money. No more pushing the costs of species protection off on the backs of property owners and local taxpayers. A rewritten Endangered Species Act should give property owners protection equal to that given bugs and birds.

A rewrite also should encourage species protection on land the government already owns. Or land the government intends to buy at full market value.

The current law declares war on American landowners. It encourages landowners to destroy habitat before the feds confiscate their property rights. A rewritten law should reverse that likelihood.

Environmentalists plan to launch a campaign to prevent attempts to rewrite the act. Look for lots of pictures of bald eagles and baby seals.

The act must be changed. It was never intended to be used as a weapon by the government against law-abiding citizens.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rowland Nethaway Cox News Service