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The populations have increased enough to warrant their removal from Michigan’s list of threatened species, along with the osprey and two insect species. In the 1950s, only 412 pairs of bald eagles were breeding in the 48 contiguous states; today there are 515 nesting pairs in Michigan alone. The gray wolf’s comeback is similarly dramatic, growing from just three in 1989 to more than 500 in 2007, though the species remains endangered federally. Currently, 40 animal species are designated under Michigan’s Endangered Species Program, with another 41 listed as threatened. The state Department of Natural Resources is considering amendments shifting three threatened species to the endangered list. Forty-six other species — 30 of them mollusks — would be listed as endangered or threatened for the first time.
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The True Costs of EPA Global Warming Regulation
The congressional debate will likely resume in 2009, as legislators try again to balance the environmental and economic considerations on this complex issue. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency, pursuant to a 2007 Supreme Court decision, has initiated steps toward bypassing the legislative process and regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
The EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is nothing less than the most costly, complicated and unworkable regulatory scheme ever proposed. Under ANPR, nearly every product, business and building that uses fossil fuels could face requirements that border on the impossible. The overall cost of this agenda would likely exceed that of the legislation rejected by Congress.
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