The Endangered Species Act was supposed to be re-authorized in 1993, but no one has dared try it. Congressional environmentalists, mostly Democrats and a few Eastern Republicans, have been afraid that bringing the subject up will give the rip-roaring right the chance to cripple the Act fatally. Anti-environmentalists, mostly Republicans and a few Western and Southern Democrats, would rather not gut this popular law out in the spotlight. They prefer to work in the shadows through special exceptions and financial starvation of the agencies that are supposed to protect wildlife. So the Act limps on, half-heartedly renewed one year at a time.
Citizen groups have to sue the government to get species put on the endangered list.
Putting a critter on the list does little good as there are fewer and fewer public resources to protect it. Meanwhile, out in nature, which knows nothing of politics, America's natural wealth slowly disappears. It's painful to watch. Every day I get gloomy e-mail bulletins. Multiply them by the dozen every month, and you get a sad view of what happens when a nation pursues money at the expense of life.