The highly peculiar Republican environmental strategy
WASHINGTON— From November to April, hundreds of manatees huddle in the warm discharge canal of one of Florida’s biggest coal-fired plants, the Big Bend Power Station near Tampa, as camera-toting families point and laugh from a viewing deck at the gentle creatures lolling near the smokestacks.
About two-thirds of Florida’s endangered manatees rely on discharge waters from power plants for winter warmth, according to federal biologists. It’s a fact that congressional Republicans are seizing on to challenge the centrepiece of U.S. President Barack Obama’s agenda to fight climate change, a plan to slash carbon emissions that could force large-scale closures of coal plants.
The chairman of the House committee on natural resources confronted U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe on the issue at a recent budget hearing. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said the Fish and Wildlife Service is required to formally consult on any plan that could pose issues for an endangered species.
A consultation process on endangered species issues could take time, slowing down the rules aimed at lowering carbon emissions from coalburning power plants, the largest U.S. source of emissions that scientists have linked to warming of the planet. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year proposed the most significant of the rules, setting federal standards for existing power plants, and it is getting ready to finalize it this summer.
It’s not the first time Republican lawmakers have linked the power plant rule to endangered species. Three senators last year suggested the Fish and Wildlife Service needed to consult on what the plan would do to species such as the California condor, which could be killed by wind turbines if there is a shift from coal to wind power. The EPA rejected that suggestion.
It’s a fact that manatees rely on the power plants, said Bob Bonde, a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Gainesville, Fla., who has worked with manatees for 37 years.
“If we shut them off cold turkey and the manatees don’t have options or other responses, then we’re going to have a problem,” he said. “And those manatees aren’t going to be able to fend for themselves over the short term.”
But he said wildlife managers are working on ideas to wean manatees from de- pending on the plants.
“I would think any kind of educated process in getting manatees to disassociate from any source of artificial warm water is probably a healthy thing to do for the long term,” Bonde said. “Let’s face it, we can’t produce warm water for manatees forever.”