Cynthia Koehler is Senior Consulting Attorney for EDF.

The Mainstream media reports that the Bush administration is rushing to finalize "minor" changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that would preclude federal agencies from considering global warming when determining whether fish, wildlife, plants and other species are threatened with extinction.

This provision is apparently part of the Administration's proposal to eliminate the ESA's requirement that federal fishery agencies, either the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, provide scientific review for all federal projects that could affect a protected species. Under the new proposal, agencies such as the Bureau of Reclamation would decide on their own whether and how one of their projects would, or could, cause harm to depleted species.

The new proposal goes a step further than an earlier draft by explicitly excluding climate change from the factors that would trigger an interagency consultation.

Polar bears, anyone?

If the rule survives the change in administrations, it could potentially have far reaching consequences in California where sea level rise driven by climate change is expected to be one of the predominant factors affecting the ecological health of the Bay-Delta.