A quick note to follow up on the Washington Post article about Dick Cheney’s horrifying environmental record…. which has made a few (small?) waves in Congress. What ultimately happens? Who knows. However, the House Natural Resources Committee chairman Nick Rayhall just invited Cheney to testify:


“Dear Vice President Cheney:

The Committee on Natural Resources will hold a hearing on July 31, 2007, to examine the role that elected officials and political appointees within the Administration have played in the scientific decision making processes under the Endangered Species Act and other laws governing the conservation and management of our nation’s natural resources. I cordially invite you to testify at this hearing.

As you are aware, a June 27, 2007 Washington Post article detailed your apparent efforts, as well as the efforts of political appointees in the Administration, to influence a wide range of scientific and policy decisions at the Department of Interior and Commerce to benefit industry at the expense of our natural resources. For example, the article alleges that your intervention in the development of a 10-year water plan for the Klamath River resulted in a 2002 die-off of around 70,000 salmon near the California-Oregon border -the largest adult salmon kill in the history of the West. We invite you, as a former member of this Committee, to offer your views on these reports and explain your role in this and other decisions.”