Senate Republicans planned to hold a hearing to discuss reforming the Endangered Species Act, despite the long-standing law’s huge success and popularity. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, led by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo), was expected to occur Wednesday.

Just what Republicans want to reform or repeal about the act is unclear. But Barrasso’s mission to alter or eliminate the act has been funded by more than $1.7 million from the oil and gas industry since 2012, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit conservation organization. The reform might be a distinct possibility now that Republicans are in control of Congress and the White House, said industry insider publication E&E News.

“The clear intent of this hearing is to begin the process of gutting the endangered species act. Sen. Barrasso’s callous attack on this crucial environmental law is totally out of step with the strong majority of Americans who support the Endangered Species Act,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Without the act, we wouldn’t have bald eagles, grizzly bears or many other wildlife species we all cherish.”

Since its passage in 1978, the bill has aimed to protect the more than 2,270 species that are endangered or threatened. It provides for their conservation and the conservation of ecosystems on which they need to survive, and the evidence shows it’s been hugely successful in its mission. More than 200 species would have gone extinct by 2006 without the act, and it has saved more than 99 percent of the species under its protection from extinction, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

“Oil companies may be keen to gut and repeal this vital protection for imperiled wildlife, but the American people don’t want our nation’s most effective law shredded to profit the petroleum industry,” said Hartl.

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A 2013 poll conducted by Public Policy Polling shows that is, in fact, the case. According to the results, two-thirds of Americans wanted Congress to strengthen and protect the Endangered Species Act.

“This poll is a powerful rebuke of those in Congress who want to tear the Endangered Species Act apart,” said Bill Snape, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Protecting plants and animals also gives protection to our air, water, climate and wild places. Americans understand the value of the Endangered Species Act, and they don’t want politicians mucking it up.”

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Photo: Getty

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