The lions of law are attempting to slay the safeguards that are protecting endangered species and they should be stopped.

According to the Defenders of Wildlife:


Legislation that would tear apart protections for our endangered
wildlife may be on the verge of being introduced by Representative
Richard Pombo (R-CA), Chair of the House Resources Committee. Defenders
got a hold of the proposed bill, and it is scary.

In the words of Jamie Rappaport Clark, former Director of the U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service and now Executive Vice President of Defenders,
the draft bill “takes a wrecking ball to the whole Endangered Species
Act” by changing its mission, disabling enforcement tools, and
providing extensive loopholes for corporate special interests.

How bad is this legislation?
It's even worse than we feared. All of the gains we've made since the
Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 are at stake and accelerating
extinctions would be certain. We've conducted an analysis of the draft
bill prepared by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA).

Our concerns include:

-The draft bill abandons the national commitment to bringing declining
species back from the brink of extinction and recovering them to the
point where they no longer need the Act's protection.

-It opens a giant loophole that allow legal appeals during every step
of the endangered species conservation process. Irresponsible
developers, timber and mining interests and other resource exploiters
would be able to tie the process into knots and avoid any meaningful
implementation and enforcement.

-It allows federal agencies to ignore their responsibility to protect threatened and endangered species..

-It includes an onerous “takings” provision which requires the federal
government to pay landowners for the costs of complying with the law, a
terrible precedent to set with regard to environmental protections.

-The proposed bill sets the year 2015 as the expiration date for the
Endangered Species Act, setting a timetable for ending protection of
our endangered species!

To find out more about these great watchdogs, go to: www.saveESA.org

On another environmental topic, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR is retiring.  According to www.loe.org,
which is LIVING ON EARTH, a weekly radio program on many public radio
stations, JUSTICE O'CONNOR has helped on several occasions to keep
environmental protections in place.  Go to the web site and check
out this week's discussion entitled “High Stakes For The
Environment”.  It may sound unusual to some to see Justice
O'Connor highlighted in a positive manor since she did contribute to
giving us the current administration, but any good point for the big E
(the ENVIRONMENT), is worth noting.

One last tidbit, if you are TRULY interested in creating your own useful SOLAR designs, check out the upcoming workshops at www.irenew.org

THE NEW BOHEMIA SOLAR PROJECT INSTALLATION WORKSHOPS will be held in
August.  The first will be FRIDAY, SATURDAY, & SUNDAY, AUGUST
5,6 & 7.  A repeat of the same will be the following weekend,
AUGUST 12,13 & 14.

Check them out and make a difference in your energy consumption. 
Also, set aside SATURDAY & SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 & 11, to attend
the 14TH ANNUAL I-RENEW CONFERENCE in HIAWATHA/LINN COUNTY, IOWA. 
It is a spectacular weekend of new and useful ways to better your
impact on our beautiful planet.  Bring your kids and skeptical
friends.  The same website will give you all the information you
need.