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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Cheney and Dudley Interfering in Right Whale Rule

New evidence shows that the White House is meddling with a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) rule to protect the North Atlantic right whale — one of the most critically endangered whale species in the world. The rule has been awaiting clearance — or, more accurately, gathering dust — at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) since February 2007.

NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has been working on the rule since 1999, and in 2006 proposed limiting the speeds of large ships in the Atlantic during seasons when the right whale is most active. Ship strikes are a major cause of death for right whales. "Ship strikes are responsible for 37% of whale deaths in just the last twenty two years," according to the office of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).

An investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee shows the White House is not merely stalling, but also actively working to thwart the efforts of NMFS's staff and undermine the marine science serving as the basis for the rule. "According to documents obtained by the Committee, the rule's delay appears to be due to baseless objections raised by White House officials, including officials in the Office of the Vice President."

Today, Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote to Susan Dudley, the administrator of OIRA who President Bush installed by recess appointment last year. Documents show that as many as three separate White House offices — the Council of Economic Advisors, the Office of the Vice President, and one unnamed White House source (probably OIRA) — are pressuring NOAA to change the rule, or simply drop its efforts to protect the right whale altogether. From Waxman's letter:

[T]he Vice President's staff "contends that we have no evidence (i.e., hard data) that lowering the speeds of 'large ships' will actually make a difference." NOAA rejected these objections, writing that both a statistical analysis of ship strike records and the peer-reviewed literature justified the final rule. In its response to the objections from the Vice President's staff, NOAA reported that there is "no basis to overturn our previous conclusion that imposing a speed limit on large vessels would be beneficial to whales."

A third document reveals that the White House requested that NOAA consider unpublished information relating to the birth rate of right whales. NOAA responded that it "used the latest, peer-reviewed, scientific data when developing" the rule.

Stalling regulations and putting politics ahead of science is always bad, but they are especially troubling in this instance, as time is of the essence for the right whale. Fewer than 350 of the mammals remain. Since the summer of 2004, seven have died as a result of ship strikes, according to Waxman. Two right whales have been struck by ships, and one has likely died, in the time the rule has been stuck at OIRA. NMFS officials warn that even one more dead female could set the species on an irrevocable path toward extinction.

NMFS experts have been working diligently to extend protections for the right whale but have been stonewalled by political apparatchiks like OIRA Administrator Susan Dudley and Vice President Dick Cheney. The White House's delay and scientific interference is truly an example of executive power run amok.