<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="country-region"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="place"/>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Helvetica;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:Arial;
color:windowtext;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica'>FYI, Carolyn Marsh<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></strong></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></strong></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica'>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</span></font></b></strong><font
size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica'>Press contact: </span></font></b></strong><font
size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica'>Josh
Mogerman, 312/780-7424 or jmogerman@nrdc.org<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:7.5pt;
font-family:Helvetica'>If you are not a member of the press, please write to us
at <a href="mailto:nrdcinfo@nrdc.org">nrdcinfo@nrdc.org</a> or see our <a
href="http://www.nrdc.org/contactUs/default.asp">contact page</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:Helvetica;font-weight:bold'>Groups Fight to Save the Endangered
Species Act <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica;font-weight:bold'>Last Minute Bush Rule Changes Threaten
American Wildlife<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'>SAN FRANCISCO, CA (December 17, 2008) –
Environmentalists and commercial fishermen are fighting to protect the
Endangered Species Act regulations from last-minute changes by the Bush
administration that will dramatically weaken and limit the use of the landmark
wildlife protection law, according to legal experts and scientists. The Bush
plan has been roundly panned for eliminating science from federal agency
decision making and ignoring objections from hundreds of thousands of concerned
citizens across the country. In an effort to maintain protection for wildlife,
a coalition of groups filed suit today to halt the last-minute rules.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'>The suit claims that the Bush rule changes are illegal
and expose <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
most vulnerable plants and animals to new threats by allowing federal agencies
to self-consult about potential project impacts on endangered species. In a
major break from typical national environmental policy, no environmental impact
statement has been conducted.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'>Though the changes were announced last week, the final
language was not published until Tuesday morning. After reviewing the changes,
the groups’ fears were realized regarding the changes. The suit was filed
in the Northern District of California. Earthjustice is representing the
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sierra Club, Conservation Northwest,
The Humane Society of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United
States</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), and the Institute for Fisheries Resources.
NRDC will also be co-counsel with Earthjustice.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'>“We’ve gone to court over this issue before,
we’re doing so now and we’ll continue to do so until the proper
protections are in place for wildlife in peril,” said Janette Brimmer,
attorney for Earthjustice. “Requiring compliance with the Endangered
Species Act only part of the time is not what was intended when Congress
originally passed the ESA. These new set of rules are not in compliance with
the original law.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'>“The Endangered Species Act is the cornerstone of
our country’s environmental laws and the rule-changes in question run
roughshod over its basic mandate,” said Andrew Wetzler, director of
NRDC’s Endangered Species Program. “If the Bush administration
thinks that the green groups and the general public will just step aside they are
tone-deaf and wrong.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'>"When it comes to protecting wildlife, we should
listen to the scientists who spend their lives studying these animals. If they
say global warming is the biggest threat to polar bears, then we should do what
it takes to eliminate that threat," said Sierra Club executive director
Carl Pope. "These rules would be a lasting reminder of all of the disdain
for science and political trumping of expertise that have characterized the
Bush Administration's efforts to dismantle fundamental environmental laws."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'>“This last ditch effort to gut the nation’s
strongest wildlife-protection law is patently illegal, and will not
succeed," said Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president and chief counsel of
animal protection litigation and research for The Humane Society of the United
States. "The party is over for these kinds of conservation
rollbacks, and it’s time to start talking about strengthening our
commitments to the protection of endangered species."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica'>"Salmon recovery on the west coast depends on
keeping the most environmentally damaged stocks from extinction,"
said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations
(PCFFA), many of whose members depend on healthy salmon runs for their
livelihoods. "This new rule would allow the very same federal water
agencies who have destroyed many of our salmon runs through years of
mismanagement to run for cover and escape their responsibility. The
habitat protections and water reforms salmon desperately need to
survive could be impossible under this new rule. This could be the
death knell for a billion dollars salmon fishery already hard pressed to
survive." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>