Endangered species: Bush wants control

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is asking Congress to give his administration full authority over the listing of endangered species and to block citizens from filing lawsuits to force animals and plants onto the list.

The proposal to waive parts of the Endangered Species Act, and in effect give Interior Secretary Gale Norton sole discretion over listings, is contained in Bush's $1.76 trillion budget which was unveiled Monday.

The request drew fire yesterday from a variety of environmental groups, who warned that such a measure -- combined with a 25 percent cut in endangered species funding -- would be "an invitation to extinction."

The waiver would essentially gut the 28-year-old act by shutting off one of the main ways species are listed as endangered, Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen said at a briefing yesterday with the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental advocacy groups.

In his budget plan, Bush asks Congress to overlook what Schlickeisen said is "perhaps the strongest single element of the Endangered Species Act," a section that allows citizens to sue if the Department of Interior is not moving quickly enough to list a species.

"That leaves the discretion with ... a secretary of the Interior who I point out through a long career has taken every opportunity to debunk the Endangered Species Act (and) speak against it and at one point even suggest that it was unconstitutional," Schlickeisen said.

"One doesn't have to wonder very much what's on Secretary of the Interior Norton's mind when she's thinking of making this proposal or what's on his (Bush's) mind when he's proposing it in the budget."

Parts of the Bush plan will face an uphill battle on Capitol Hill. Although lawmakers have passed budget resolutions that are in some areas similar to the president's proposal, in other areas -- particularly the controversial subject of energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- Bush's budget differs sharply from the House and Senate plans.

Congress' budget resolutions disregard drilling at the refuge altogether, but the Bush proposal counts on $2.4 billion in money earned from oil leases there in 2004.

Environmental activists criticized the Bush budget's plans for the Arctic refuge as well as across-the-board cuts of 7.3 percent -- or $2.1 billion -- in environmental and natural resources programs.

Some of the hardest hit programs are those researching ways to improve energy efficiency and cultivate renewable energy.

David Doniger, an attorney with the National Resources Defense Council who headed the climate change office in the Environmental Protection Agency under President Clinton, criticized the Bush administration for "hyping up an energy crisis" and then proposing to "slash federal energy efficiency and renewables programs by hundreds of millions of dollars."

Bush would cut the spending on energy conservation programs by at least $20.5 million or 2.5 percent over this year and would cut money for developing and issuing new appliance energy efficiency standards by more than half -- from $9.4 million to $4.4 million.

Doniger said Bush would cut funding for renewable energy programs by 26 percent -- or $97 million. That includes a 76 percent cut in federal grants to local governments and public power systems to use existing renewable energy technology and a 48 percent cut in research into methods for generating energy using the sun, wind and water.

The Bush budget would use royalties from oil leasing at ANWR to make up for the research cuts beginning in 2004.

"This budget undercuts what little credibility President Bush had on the environment," said Wesley Warren, a former Clinton administration budget official now with the National Resources Defense Council.

Warren said Bush reneged "on major campaign promises," including a pledge to allot $100 million a year to a rain forest conservation program.

Instead, Bush's budget would spend the same amount as this year -- $13 million -- on the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, which allows countries to restructure debts if they work to preserve the rain forests.

Bush's budget would boost spending on land-conservation programs, including a 20 percent increase in the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The president proposes spending $411 million on EPA enforcement activities, an increase of $14 million over this year. As part of the EPA funding, Bush would give states $25 million to enforce environmental regulations, as part of a plan to shift some of that responsibility away from the EPA, said Mitch Daniels, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

"Spread out over the 50 states, that money will not go very far, nor does it provide any indication that the states (would) use this money to enforce the laws," said Amy Maron, Washington, D.C., representative for the Sierra Club.

"Bush's budget takes the federal cop off the beat, and instead relies on states to crack down on their local polluters."

Maron said the Bush plan would cut more than 223 EPA staff, "crippling the agency's ability to crack down on polluters when states turn a blind eye."

But on Monday, Daniels said "the core programs of the EPA will be absolutely maintained. The 17,500 employees now working there -- that head count will be maintained, so that enforcement will be continued and, I hope, enhanced."

Norton also defended the administration proposal for the EPA, saying it streamlines environmental spending, and still boasts a more than $56 million increase over the Clinton administration's request for 2001.

P-I reporter Jennifer A. Dlouhy can be reached at 202-943-9225 or jdlouhy@hearstdc.com