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If you want to know what a truly endangered species is, look at the North Atlantic Right Whale. There are only 350 of the slow-to-breed animals left alive, and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded that the death of even one of pregnant North Atlantic Right Whale could make the difference between species survival and species extinction.

So, scientists in the federal government were given the task, mandated by the law, of determining how to prevent right whale deaths, and determining the economic cost of doing so. They found that the cost of protecting right whales, by requiring shipping vessels to slow down in areas where right whales are common, would be just three tenths of one percent of the financial worth of the East Coast shipping industry.

That’s when the White House stepped in, ordering officials to determine whether that economic cost would be worth the benefit of preventing North Atlantic right whales to go extinct.

That’s a political decision, not a scientific decision. It’s the kind of political manipulation of science that is forbidden under endangered species law.

Henry Waxman, Chair of the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, is on the job. Last week, Congressman Waxman released Bush Administration memos that show inappropriate efforts to manipulate the decision-making process regarding proposed rules to protect the North Atlantic right whale.

Disregarding the objections of government scientists and the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, the Bush Administration has put the rules to protect the North Atlantic right whale on hold.

“On hold” is a nice way of saying that the North Atlantic right whale will not receive any protections while George W. Bush is President of the United States - regardless of what the law requires. Since when is President Bush going to let a little old thing like the law stand in the way of what he wants to do?