Subject: [Homestead] What the GOP government can do if science is against their tricks
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 21:48:01 -0700
Give skewed regulations designed to gut the environment a fine-sounding
name, like "Clear Skies Initiative"
Talk about "flawed science" underlying the consensus of scientists all
over the world.
Hide the evidence as relates to which lobbyists wrote the Energy Bill in
the White House---still unknown in spite of numerous court decisions to
the contrary, to be appealed past the November election.
Or instruct the writers of a science-based report to rewrite it,
changing its conclusion one hundred eighty degrees---kill all the damned
salmon and give them no water to swim in---the Southern California
inland desert wants their water..
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Federal biologists evaluating the effects of
shifting millions of gallons of water to Southern California from rivers
in the north were ordered by their superiors to revise a conclusion that
the plan would hurt endangered salmon, a newspaper reported Saturday.
At issue is a state-federal plan for the network of reservoirs and
aqueducts that moves water to Southern California.
Biologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
initially found that the water project would harm fish in many rivers in
Northern California, including salmon in the American River. But NOAA
administrators overruled the report's findings and supervised a
rewriting of the analysis, according to documents obtained by The
Sacramento Bee.
Some agency employees who asked not to be identified said some of the
changes had no basis in science and will substantially weaken
protections for endangered winter-run salmon, steelhead and other fish.
NOAA officials say the revisions were justified. Agency biologists made
some errors and "unsubstantiated conclusions" in their original draft,
said James Lecky, an agency administrator in Long Beach who ordered the
revisions.
The project would pump more water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta to Southern California.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave its blessing to the plan in
August, but NOAA biologists reached a different conclusion. A draft
report from NOAA said the plan "is likely to jeopardize the continued
existence of Sacramento winter-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley
steelhead," as well as spring-run salmon.
An updated version, dated Sept. 27, no longer concludes that winter-run
salmon or other fish could face extinction by the extra water
diversions. The revised report also softens wording for how dam
operators could avoid future impacts on fish and no longer calls for a
minimum flow standard for the American River, as the original draft did.
[Homestead] What the GOP government can do if science is against their tricks,
Tvoivozhd, 10/02/2004