THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 136, June 25, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT:
ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION COSTING THE U.S.A. BILLIONS
By Alan Caruba
FULL STORY:
At a time when this nation is engaged in a war, putting the lives of its soldiers in harm’s way to end the threat of Middle Eastern
terrorism, it would seem inconceivable that it would also be wasting billions to protect some species of salmon or the shortnose
suckerfish. But it is.
Unfortunately, when the truth is revealed, the mainstream press often ignores it. For example, on April 14 of this year, the Pacific
Legal Association, in association with the Property and Environmental Research Center (PERC), released a study that demonstrated
the mind-boggling costs of the Endangered Species Act:
“PERC researchers found that the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) grossly underreported federal and state
ESA costs in its recent report to Congress, and completely ignored the private economic and social costs of
ESA compliance, which together easily total billions of dollars a year.”
The PERC researchers based this finding on a December, 2003, FWS report to Congress, “Three-Year Summary of Federal and State
Endangered Species Expenditures, Fiscal Years 1998-2000.” According to FWS, the federal and state expenditures totaled $610.3
million. PERC estimated the real costs to be as much as four times greater; more in the area of $2.4 billion. When you add in the
private costs to those of government expenditures, the total “may easily reach or exceed $3.5 billion per year.”
There is something obscene about this, considering the many other priorities of our nation. In the Pacific Legal Foundation report,
Emma T. Suarez, an attorney for the Foundation, said: “People have lost their jobs, businesses, homes, farms, and even their lives
to protect plants, insects, and fish.” The report is the story of a government more committed to socalled endangered species than
to its citizens and to the economy upon which government depends.
Indeed, the story of the entire environmentalist movement is about the steady degradation of the American economy and those of
other nations around the world. The environmentalist movement is an attack on capitalism, an attack designed to thwart access to
natural resources and to destroy agriculture, ranching, production of beneficial chemicals and pharmaceuticals, transportation, and
every other element of the American economy.
The FWS report managed to omit critical information in its 2003 cost report.
Only “estimates” of costs to taxpayers, not actual costs, were provided.
The FWS report ignored government-wide costs, neatly skirting the many federal agencies and departments affected by the ESA
reported expenditures and noting only costs that were “reasonably identifiable” for individual species. That’s a hole big enough
to drive a truck through.
Costs to state and local entities for implementing species recovery were also ignored, along with those represented by ESA-caused
interference with the building of schools, hospitals, roads, and other infrastructure projects. Also ignored were the costs to private
landowners.
The PERC study, however, noted that “75% of all listed species have portions or all of their habitat on privately owned land and the FWS
regulates 38 million acres of private land through conservation plans. Landowners are not compensated for their losses from ESA
regulations that prohibit them from using their land productively.” These costs are enormous.
It is little wonder that the costs of housing, old and new, are soaring. ESA regulations are widely used to deter the creation of new
housing stock, despite the obvious housing needs of a rapidly growing population.
The other economic and social costs from regulatory burdens placed on agricultural production, water use, forest management, and
mineral extraction were not included in the FWS report. If they were, the public would be in the streets demanding an end to ESA.
The FSW report did not take into consideration lost jobs, lost business, and lost tax revenues. If it did, the ESA would be rescinded
within days.
One important example of omissions in the FSW report was failure to mention anything regarding the tremendous economic loss
caused by the hoax about the “endangered” northern spotted owl. According to the PERC study,
“At least 130,000 jobs were lost when more than 900 sawmills, pulp mills, and paper mills closed in mid-1990 to
protect the owl. In California, ESA-mandated water reductions in the Westlands Water District cost the state
economy more than $218 million and 4,500 jobs statewide.”
Moreover, the federal government was estimated to have lost about $2.3 million in revenue, as a result of the ESA-mandated water
restrictions.
The Endangered Species Act has proven to be an expensive and destructive failure. Despite listing 1,260 U.S. species, as of
December, 2003, only fifteen were “delisted” and those mainly because the original data citing them as endangered proved to be
inaccurate!
Environmentalism is not about caring for the needs of human beings or our nation’s economy. It is just the opposite. It is not some
benign movement, but rather a malignant cancer that destroys lives, jobs, and the quintessential basis of our economy, the rights
of private property owners.
Easily, 90% or more of all the species that ever existed on earth are extinct. It’s called survival of the fittest and has been going on
since life on earth began. It is worse than conceit to think that government can “save” a few species; it is an arrogant and
dangerous notion that seeks to replace the process of nature with the goals of the environmentalists
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center,
and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center
(www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past columns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maplewood, New Jersey, 07040.
Copyright 2004 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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