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POLICY NEWS AND UPDATES

In late February, SCB members in the Washington, D.C. area met with various congressional representatives and their staff to distribute copies of SCB s recommendations for actions by the Obama Administration and the Congress to advance the scientific foundation for conservation of biological diversity.

On 20 March, I met with Bryan Arroyo, Assistant Director, Endangered Species, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I asked him to urge the Secretary of the Interior to rescind regulations by the Bush Administration that would impede interagency consultation on potential take of endangered species and on responses to climate change. The Society for Conservation Biology, The Wildlife Society, and The Ornithological Council submitted comments on proposed rule changes to the Endangered Species Act in September 2008 (see www.conbio.org/policy).

In late March, the David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellows and their mentors discussed how to apply their research to policy on a relatively rapid timetable. For example, recent research on bycatch can be applied to revisions of federal fishery management laws.

We also submitted a short set of answers in response to a questions circulated by the House Committee on Agriculture on the potential role of the agriculture and forestry sectors in responding to climate change.

We have been reviewing the recently released Markey-Waxman draft climate bill (posted on the Web site of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce). The bill would lead to caps on emissions of greenhouse gases over the next several years and would allow emitters to use offsets to avoid direct reductions in emissions for approximately a decade. The bill s authors hope that the cost of permits to emit greenhouse gases will be a deterrent to continued operation of certain power plants. However, others are concerned that the bill will discourage exploration of cleaner technology and sources of energy.

John Fitzgerald

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