“Their inquiry concerns Ms. MacDonald's
potential conflict of interest, her alleged
disclosure of nonpublic information regarding the
threatened delta smelt and the Department's apparent
failure to adequately respond to any of these
questionable actions over several years,”
according to a press release from Miller’s office.
"The more we learn about Julie MacDonald's
role at Interior, the more concerned I become,"
said Miller. "We have asked the Interior
Department a series of questions, and so far the
Department has failed to respond adequately to our
concerns. There has been an epidemic of political
interference at Interior. Congress and the public
deserve to know why this political appointee was
allowed to interfere in scientific decisions and in
court cases to the detriment of the
environment."
MacDonald was actively involved in removing the
Sacramento splittail, a native minnow, from the
federal threatened and endangered species list at
the same time that she was profiting from her
ownership of a farm that lies within the habitat
area of the threatened fish, according to an article
written by investigative journalist Mike Taugher in
the Conta Costa Times on May 20. This was a blatant
conflict of interest.
The Representatives' letter and a May 21
congressional inquiry follow a May 9 Natural
Resources Committee hearing at which Deputy Interior
Secretary Lynn Scarlett was questioned about
controversies in the implementation of the
Endangered Species Act.
"The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has enough
problems without political appointees at scientific
agencies cooking the books,” said Rep. Miller
According to an October 2006 report by the Union
of Concerned Scientists, MacDonald "personally
reversed scientific findings, changed scientific
conclusions to prevent endangered species from
receiving protection, removed relevant information
from a scientific document, and ordered the Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS) to adopt her edits."
In March 2007, the Interior Department Inspector
General, Earl E. Devaney, reported that MacDonald
broke federal rules by giving non-public, internal
government documents to oil industry and property
rights groups, and manipulated scientific findings
to favor Bush policy goals and assist land
developers.
“Through interviewing various sources,
including FWS (Fish and Wildlife Service) employees
and senior officials, and reviewing pertinent
documents and e-mails, we confirmed that MacDonald
has been heavily involved with editing, commenting
on, and reshaping the Endangered Species Program's
scientific reports from the field,” the report
stated. “MacDonald admitted that her degree is in
civil engineering and that she has no formal
educational background in natural sciences, such as
biology.”
Fishing and conservation groups are appalled by
the tremendous damage to the country’s endangered
species and environment that MacDonald and other
administration officials have caused.
“It will be years before we discover the
monumental scope of the harm that was done to
biological habitat and waterways throughout
California and the nation by MacDonald,” said Bill
Jennings, executive director of the California
Sportfishing Protection Alliance. “If anybody
should have a reserved spot in a federal
penitentiary, it should be Julie MacDonald.”
Macdonald’s manipulation of science to benefit
wealthy agribusiness and corporate interests needs
to be seen within the context of an administration
that has repeatedly manipulated and broken the
country’s environmental laws for political
purposes.
The Natural Resources Committee has also
scheduled a July 31 oversight hearing to which Vice
President Dick Cheney has been invited to testify on
his apparent role in influencing scientific and
policy decisions at the Department of the Interior
that led to the Klamath fish kill of 2002.
Cheney spokeswoman Megan McGinn, in typical
administration fashion, said he was not likely to
attend, as quoted in an Associated Press article on
July 18. "I do not expect the vice president to
testify before the committee," McGinn stated.
Dan Bacher is an editor of The
Fish Sniffer , described as "The #1
Newspaper in the World Dedicated Entirely to
Fishermen"
