Probing USA Evidence Affecting Endangered Species

Probing USA Evidence Affecting Endangered Species



Aug. 2007  – House Democrats held a lengthy 
hearing Tuesday to probe evidence that Bush administration officials 
improperly meddled with several decisions affecting endangered species, 
but they failed to find the smoking gun directly linking Vice President 
Dick Cheney to a controversial decision that contributed to the largest 
fish kill in U.S. history.


The House Resources Committee is investigating allegations of Cheney's 
involvement in the Klamath fish kill that surfaced in a "Washington Post" 
story in June. A former Interior Department official told the paper the 
vice president pressured the agency to maintain irrigation flows to 
farmers despite federal obligations to balance agricultural interests with 
the water needs of three endangered fish species and the tribal water 
rights of Native Americans. 
Federal officials subsequently decided in April 2002 to divert water for 
farmers, reversing a past policy and ignoring the objections of federal 
biologists tasked with upholding the Endangered Species Act. 
The diversion was in part responsible for a fish kill that left some 
70,000 salmon dead near the California-Oregon border. 
In 2004, the Interior Department's Inspector General investigated 
allegations that Karl Rove interfered with federal officials to enact the 
controversial decision, but found no evidence of political influence by 
the White House political advisor. 
The investigation did not consider Cheney, an Interior official told the 
House Natural Resources Committee, but would have if information about his 
possible influence had been known at the time, 
"We would have followed any tracks made available to us," said Interior's 
Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall, who said her office would 
specifically have examined Cheney's involvement and impact on Interior 
employees. 
"In the end, we don't know what we don't know," Kendall said.

Michael Kelly, a former fisheries biologist who worked on the Klamath 
issue, told the committee he knew Cheney had been briefed on the plan, but 
had no direct evidence of any interference by the vice president. 
"I was aware that President [George W.] Bush had declared he'd do 
everything he could to get water to the farms," Kelly told the committee, 
adding that he knew his superiors were being pressured to speed up 
assessments and tilt the science to favor the farmers. 
"I naively believed that I was shielded from such pressure," said Kelly, 
who explained that he was pressured to endorse a revised 10 year plan for 
managing Klamath flows that supported diverting water from the imperiled 
fish species to benefit agricultural interests. 
"I was essentially asked to support a conclusion that made as much sense 
as 1+1=3," Kelly said 
The biological opinion underlying the plan was "completely bogus and 
illegal," said Kelly who noted that a federal court subsequently found the 
opinion violated the Endangered Species Act. 
Committee Chairman Nick Rahall called the Klamath situation "a fiasco" and 
criticized Cheney and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for not appearing 
before the committee. 
"I will not pretend to be surprised [Cheney] declined our invitation," 
Rahall told colleagues. "But I am obliged to express disappointment at the 
difficulty we have had in trying to learn the truth and conduct basic 
oversight over an agency and an administration that have made secrecy and 
lack of accountability hallmarks of their tenure."

 
Republicans on the committee said Democrats were chasing a red herring. 
"There was no improper political meddling in the Klamath decision-making 
process and independent peer reviewed science trumped all in the end," 
said Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican. 
She criticized Rahall for focusing on "loose allegations and inferences 
about Cheney" and for playing "an unproductive blame game." 
Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican, also warned the hearing 
could unsettle ongoing negotiations by stakeholders in the Klamath. 
"Anyone who is serious about a comprehensive resolution for the Klamath 
Basin would not have called this hearing, especially at this time," said 
Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican. "It runs the risk of 
aborting a mediated settlement process that involves 26 parties in the 
basin who in the past would have been at the throats." 
Democrats dismissed such concerns and spent much of the seven hour hearing 
discussing broader allegations of political interference by administration 
officials. 
"When it comes to political interference and ethical lapses at the 
department, the Klamath River is just the tip of the iceberg," Rahall 
said, noting recent controversy surrounding the actions of former Interior 
Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald. 
A recent Interior Inspector General report detailed interference by 
MacDonald with scientific reports on a slew of endangered and threatened 
species, including sage grouse, prairie dogs, the California tiger 
salamander, and Delta smelt fish. MacDonald repeatedly pressed scientists 
to downplay risks to species and in several instances simply ignored their 
findings. 


Federal judges have already rejected decisions influenced by MacDonald, 
including a move to downgrade protections for the endangered Santa Barbara 
and Sonoma salamanders. 
Concern about meddling by MacDonald prompted the Fish and Wildlife Service 
to announce last month that it will revisit eight endangered species 
decisions she may have improperly influenced. 
Kendall told the committee that MacDonald's actions have "cast a vast 
cloud over the Department's scientific integrity." 
MacDonald's tenure at the agency has the potential to affect more than 
just the eight decisions the Interior Department has already pledged to 
review, Kendall added. 
"Other decisions may be at risk for legal challenge simply by virtue of 
Ms. MacDonald's personal involvement," Kendall said. 
Rahall said he has "little confidence" in the department's ability to 
impartially review MacDonald's influence.
Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall said his agency could be 
trusted to make decisions based on science, not politics. 
"Neither I nor the Interior Department will tolerate instances in which 
scientific soundness and integrity have been compromised," he told the 
committee. 
But Rahall remained unconvinced. 
He said, "I find it difficult to see how we can trust any decision made in 
an agency that has, time and again, betrayed its own career scientists, 
repeatedly failed to hold its appointees to ethical standards and so 
callously disregarded its mission for the sake of political gain." 

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