Sign up to get free environmental news updates by email. You also might be led to believe that the Republican and Democratic parties have had a recent spiritual enlightenment about protecting Mother Earth.
Truth be told, both parties are probably responsible.
Because our elected representatives are busy assailing our critical environmental laws by attaching anti-environmental riders to key funding bills. Riders are pieces of legislation, tacked onto unrelated appropriations bills, which attack key environmental laws, programs, or funding. They are a favorite tactic of anti-environmental congresspeople because they aren't debated in Congress or in the court of public opinion. This year there are more than 40 such nasty little provisions stuck onto the bills that fund the federal government. For example, riders would allow grazing on public lands without environmental review, use our tax dollars to needlessly slaughter Yellowstone bison, delay reintroduction of the endangered grizzly bear into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, stop endangered gray wolves from migrating into Oregon, and limit the amount of money that can be used for two key programs for endangered species recovery.