AUSTIN, TX – Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) General Counsel and Director of the Center for the American Future Robert Henneke and head of Texans for Positive Economic Policy (TPEP) former Texas Comptroller Susan Combs issued the following statements on the decision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to deny a status review of the delisting petition filed by TPPF and TPEP to remove the golden-cheeked warbler from the Endangered Species List because of its documented recovery:
"In 1990, FWS listed on an emergency basis the golden-cheeked warbler with almost no scientific or biological information about the bird's populations and habitat,” said Combs. “We are disappointed that the Fish and Wildlife Service today is unwilling even to look at the mass of scientific data developed by the biologists and other experts in the field who have studied this species since 1990, which consistently shows that much of the information FWS based its original listing decision on no longer reflects the status of the warbler."
"As documented in the delisting petition, the independent research from Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources establishes that the warbler population is 19 times greater than was estimated at the time of its listing 25 years ago,” said Henneke. “The action of the Service to deny the opportunity to fully examine the resurgence of the warbler in light of nonpartisan, academic study strongly indicates that this decision was political, not based on valid scientific nor objective data.”
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ABOUT TEXANS FOR POSITIVE ECONOMIC POLICY
Texans for Positive Economic Policy (TPEP) is devoted to promoting, among other objectives, the use of sound science in protecting endangered species. Over the past 20 years, Texas has created a national model for funding objective, peer-reviewed science to deal with the Endangered Species Act and thereby assure protection of both the species and the economy. TPEP works to promote the use of sound science in the study of species and habitat by helping to secure funding for research, study, and analysis. TPEP has a key organizational interest in promoting the use of objective, peer-reviewed science in listing and delisting decisions. TPEP supports local and state conservation efforts for the warbler rather than the unnecessary federal listing of the warbler under the Endangered Species Act.
ABOUT THE TEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute, whose mission is to promote and defend liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise in Texas and the nation by educating and affecting policymakers and the Texas public policy debate with academically sound research and outreach. The Foundation’s research fellows regularly testify before the U.S. Congress and Texas legislature on environmental and endangered species issues. This delisting petition supports the Foundation’s ongoing efforts to promote the use of academically sound research in federal regulatory decisions. The Foundation supports state and local conservation efforts as being of greater benefit to the warbler and that continued regulation under the Endangered Species Act can impede voluntary and local conservation efforts.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.