New Rule Would Discount Facts as Risk Factors

The Bush administration is finalizing changes to the Endangered Species Act that would ensure that federal agencies would not have to take facts into account when assessing risks to imperiled plants and animals.

The main purpose of the new regulation is to replace the provision of the Endangered Species Act that requires independent scientific review by either the US Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with a dart board in Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's office.  

The original version of the proposed regulation that utilized a flip of a coin to determine whether an endangered species lived or died was deemed to protect species too often.  Secretary Kempthorne said "No matter how hard I tried, that coin would come up heads almost half the time."  The new proposed regulation makes it much easier to discount the needs of threatened species because the portion of the dart board that would determined that a species might need protection can be made very small.  "Also, I can't throw a dart worth a crap" said Secretary Kempthorne.

Interior Department spokewoman Tina Kreisher said the administration is close to issuing a final rule but is still reviewing the language for potential changes such as what it means when Secretary Kempthorne misses the dart board or when the dart bounces off. "With a matter as sensitive as this, we want to be sure to capture all of the possible outcomes," said Kreisher.

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