Kerry blasts ‘dangerous’ rollback of species act

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Friday strongly criticized the Bush
administration’s revisions to the Endangered Species Act, indicating that they
were un-American.

{mosads}“The election of Barack Obama and this week’s climate change
conference made it clear to the world that on the environment and climate
change, America is going to act like America again. It seems the Bush
administration didn’t get the memo,” said Kerry, who is attending a United
Nations climate change conference in Poland this week.

The administration on Thursday changed rules related to the
Endangered Species Act, such as reducing the input of federal scientists in
determining the impact of federal projects on wildlife and preventing the law
from being used in evaluating whether a project would contribute to global
climate change.

“These eleventh-hour, last-minute changes roll back essential
protections for endangered wildlife and weaken our hand in the struggle against
global climate change,” Kerry said.

He also vowed that the incoming Congress would end these
“dangerous changes … once and for all.”