Dear Editor:
“We’ve learned from this what a blunt weapon the Endangered Species Act has become,” said state Rep. John Linder. “We need to understand this lake was created not for mussels but for people.” – Georgia Representative John Linder, this week, citing why he believes there is a water shortage in Georgia.
Republicans are using this unprecedented drought which threatens the life of millions of Georgians to their own, twisted, political advantage. At issue is whether or not the Army Corps of Engineers should continue to release water from dams in Georgia lakes to preserve federally endangered species downstream.
Every day the Corps releases a billion gallons of water from Lake Lanier, Atlanta’s principle water supply, it says to follow the letter of the law. This action has brought a lawsuit by the State of Georgia against the Corps to stop the releases as northern Georgia faces running out of water altogether within 90 days.
It seems like a classic case of rabid environmentalists putting animals before people … but all is not as it seems. The agency charged with enforcing the Endang ered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has already stated it will grant a drought exemption should the Corps request it. Has the Corps requested the drought exemption so they might save 30 billion gallons of water for humans? No.
Instead they have taken the step of dispatching biologists downstream to undertake a 30-day environmental impact assessment to determine how the reduced water flow will impact the endangered mussels.
Why won’t the Corps simply request the drought exemption and reduce flow to save water for the city of Atlanta? Why do they keep trying to blame the problem on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when they, the agency responsible for endangered species, don’t have any issue with halting the flow?
Simple: it will take 30 days for the lawsuit to get through federal courts. But why would the Corps take an action that intentionally threatens human life rather than the mussels and guarantees they will be sued? Because at some level they have been directed to by conservative political hacks who see this as the ideal battleground to eliminate the Endangered Species Act once and for all.
In other words, the Republicans are putting politics ahead of people. No environmentalist, environmental group, or agency responsible for enforcing environmental regulations is advocating the flow be continued to protect the endangered mussels.
Instead, everyone from the Sierra Club to the U.S. Department of Agriculture is willing to bend and break every law if necessary to spare human life during this crisis. But rather than heed these voices of reason and accommodation, the Republicans would rather see millions evacuate and possibly worse in order to score a political point. They are so rabidly against nature they aren’t willing to compromise where any form of life, human included, may be in jeopardy.
They could get the drought exemption and reduce the flow of water so Georgia residents might make it until the rains come; but no, they’d rather risk Georgia’s economy and people to take on the Endangered Species Act in court.
This kind of reckless disregard for the law and human life is why Republicans should no longer be entrusted with positions of leadership. Legal recourses (such as requesting the drought exemption) were built into the Endangered Species Act to preserve human life and yet the Republicans want to pretend these legal recourses don’t exist so they can take the issue to court to have the law, as a whole, dumped.
They also ignore the impact their delay in requesting the exemption will have on the human inhabitants of Georgia … so fixated they are on their ideological opposition to conservation and the environment.
Meanwhile, other Republican leaders downstream of Georgia have their own complaints. Reducing water flow from Georgia’s lakes will mean less water for Florida, South Carolina and Alabama. In those states, Republican leaders are crying foul and accusing largely Democratic Atlanta of hoarding water rather than accusing the largely Republican state of Georgia for having taken these steps.
The sell job is unbelievable. The Republicans get to blame Democrats who passed the Endangered Species Act, the Democrats who live in Atlanta, and the agencies which enforce these laws for the drought and its impact. They get to ignore the fact it is Republican industrial policies and failures to regulate pollution (like carbon dioxide) that have led to global warming and the drought at hand.
They also are ignoring the fact that shameless Republican political maneuvering is amplifying the effects of this crisis. All the while they are playing the victims of a law not intended to be used the way the Republicans are using it to their advantage now. The Endangered Species Act and the people of Georgia are being placed needlessly in harm’s way by Republican demagogues. Let’s not let them get away with it!
-Kenneth McDonald


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