As we continue to discuss energy independence, debate drilling for domestic oil, explore alternative energy sources and ask our prospective leaders what their economic plans may be…should we also pay attention to a fence that is being rapidly built at the cost of disrupting a peaceful people, harming ecosystems and the alarming reality that a governmental department has been given the authority to run with no checks and balances?
The Bush administration has announced it will wave more than thirty federal laws to finish building a wall along the Mexican border by the end of this year. The Washington Post calls the move the most sweeping use of the administration’s waiver authority during the wall’s construction. The waivers allow the Bush administration to bypass mandatory reviews on how the wall will affect ecological areas in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. House Homeland Security Committee chair Bennie Thompson called the waiver “an extreme abuse of authority.”
Environmental groups have filed petitions challenging the waivers before the Supreme Court siting several potential ecological hazards that would be created by the fence. Biologists are especially concerned about a handful of extremely rare jaguars that prowl up from Mexico over mountain trails in some of the wildest country in the southwest.
In a desperate rush to complete something (anything) that at least a few Americans will consider worthwhile, by the end of his term, the Bush administration plans to run roughshod over environmental concerns in an effort to complete the planned border fence this year.
Subscribe to our RSS feed or newsletter
Some Rights Reserved • Green Options Media • San Francisco, California • Legal
