Appeals court rejects Bush salmon plan as "sleight of hand"

[Rose Siding]

Source: AP

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — A federal appeals court Monday rejected the Bush administration's novel 2004 plan for making Columbia Basin hydroelectric dams safe for salmon, saying it used "sleight of hand" and violated the Endangered Species Act.

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld U.S. District Judge James Redden's order requiring the dams to sacrifice power production to help juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean.
...
"Under this approach, a listed species could be gradually destroyed, so long as each step on the path to destruction is sufficiently modest," Judge Sydney R. Thomas wrote of the Bush administration's approach to balancing dams against salmon. "This type of slow slide into oblivion is one of the very ills the ESA seeks to prevent."

The ruling was the latest of a series in recent weeks going against the Bush administration's environmental policies, including global warming, forest management and protecting endangered species......The appeals court found that no other federal agency had ever taken such a "cramped view" of its authority, adding that federal agencies have a duty to satisfy the requirements of the Endangered Species Act as a "first priority" over other laws.

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003659892_salmondams10m.html

[drm604]

1. The balance of powers is still working

in spite of how hard they are trying to break it.

[truthisfreedom]

2. The Judge said bush wasn't allowed to be incrementally excremental?

Wow.

[Kagemusha]

3. I like how it's very compelling legal (and real) logic.

Sounds like it's totally appeals-proof. I like it.