Reporting from Washington — President Obama is set to instruct federal agencies to once again consult with endangered-species experts before moving ahead with construction projects, overruling a last-minute rule change by the Bush administration.
Obama will issue the decision in a presidential memorandum, effectively bypassing the lengthy public comment process traditionally required for changing a rule. Business groups are protesting, saying the change will hamper critical road-building and other projects needed to jump-start the economy.
"It's almost certainly going to slow down all of these projects, even the stimulus-backed projects," said Ross Eisenberg, an environment and energy counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "What we're getting is more red tape."
Environmentalists call it a victory for threatened plants and wildlife. "This is very good news for endangered species," said Andrew Wetzler, endangered species program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The regulations that President Bush issued were clearly illegal, and they were bad policy to boot."
Bush's rule change, finalized in December, allowed federal agencies to determine on their own if projects would jeopardize endangered species, instead of consulting with expert biologists as previously required. It also gave agencies the option, if they chose, of calling on the experts from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Obama's memo will direct the agencies to exercise that option in every instance, until the Interior and Commerce Departments can reconsider the Bush rule change. It does not explicitly overturn the Bush rule. Lobbying groups are debating the memo's legality.
The move is Obama's latest step toward reversing Bush's environmental policies.
Shortly after his inauguration, Obama ordered all pending Bush regulations to be frozen, including the loosening of some air quality standards and the removal of the gray wolf from the endangered species list. Obama's Interior Department has canceled oil and gas drilling leases near national parks and paused efforts to open coastal areas for drilling and Mountain West oil shale for development.
Obama also directed the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its denial of California's request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. The EPA will hold a public hearing this week, which could result in the state imposing stricter regulations on automakers.
The chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.), lauded Obama on Monday night for moving "to restore the protections for endangered species that the Bush administration spent so many years trying to undermine."
Environmentalists said Bush's decision removed a crucial layer of protection for endangered species. Business and industry lobbyists countered that it eliminated unnecessary delays in projects without harming species.
Then-Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne admitted that the move divided Interior officials. The new Interior secretary, former Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, said in a January interview that he wanted to reconsider the rule.
jtankersley@tribune.com
