| Show w IQ Garn seeks to amend Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act has been misused and applied too rigidly said Utah Senator Jake Garn today In testimony before the Resources Protection Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works Garn warned that unless flexibility is introduced in the Act we risk its total repeal The situation that prevails is not what Congress intended and will not be tolerated by the American people According to the Utah Republican the current situation is characterized by the rigid application through the Federal courts of the inflexible language of the original Act There is no rn weighing no balancing between the need to protect rare forms of animal life and the need to proceed with vital vial construction projects The Act is being used by those who are more opposed to any development than they are interested interested interested in in- in real environmental protection TO CORRECT the situation Garn has introduced an amendment which would accomplish three things 1 it would require agencies proposing projects to take any practical p action to protect endangered species and their critical habitat from harm 2 it would permit modifications in the critical habitat that constituted an improvement improvement improvement im im- im- im provement to it As the Act is now interpreted you cant can't even improve critical habitat Finally the Garn amendment would introduce some flexibility into the application of the Act In the event that no practical action was available to protect the endangered species the Governor of a state would be allowed to balance the benefits of a project against possible biological damage That is the traditional kind of equity balancing that has always been done said Garn But for some reason the courts have held in this case that the tradition does not apply My amendment amendment amendment amend amend- ment would introduce re-introduce that tradition Noting that the Endangered Species Act had acquired something of the character of a sacred cow Garn admitted that it might be dangerous to tamper with it it But something has to tobe tobe tobe be done If the Tellico Dam were going to eliminate the humpback whale that would be one thing But Dut it threatens only an undistinguished fish whose value to man lies only in its existence |
