Jeff Crank Decries 'Radical Environmentalists' Using ESA As 'A Weapon Against Rural Americans'

2 days ago

During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday, Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO) spoke about the Endangered Species Act.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you. The chair now calls on Mr. Crank for his five minutes of questioning.

00:05Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate it. Before I get started, I come in here to this committee

00:11and I constantly hear at least one of my colleagues on the other side accuse us of

00:17an extinction agenda. That is just so offensive. I can't tell you how offensive it is. And then

00:24goes on to talk about bootlicking and kissing up. Well, there's a lot of bootlicking and kissing up

00:30goes on to environmental groups. I see that every day, every time I come to this committee. And I

00:36just wanted to say that, you know, I'm proud to be an original co-sponsor of my colleagues,

00:42Representative Boebert and Representative Tiffany's bill to delist the gray wolf from

00:47the Endangered Species Act. But, you know, the truth is Congress shouldn't have to be

00:52legislating on removing species from the endangered species list. As the testimony

01:00today reflects, we should have a transparent federal process that temporarily lists species

01:06as endangered or threatened, and then once recovered, goals are met, delists the species

01:12and returns management to the states. That's the way the process ought to work. Wolves, the

01:18introduction of wolves, and I won't even say the reintroduction because we never had Canadian wolves

01:24introduced in Colorado, ever in Colorado before, but that has been a disaster for the state of

01:30Colorado. Ranchers are losing cattle. They're losing sheep. Our elk populations will diminish

01:37over time as more and more wolves are introduced. And this was all done by a ballot measure voted

01:45on by the citizens of Denver and Boulder to introduce wolves into places that aren't Boulder

01:51and Denver. They introduced it into communities on the western slope. Now, if we're going to talk

01:58about historic range, wouldn't we want to put them in downtown Denver and Boulder? I guess we don't

02:04want to do that. So, this is a sad state, you know, under the current madness. Do we want to delist?

02:16Do we want to continue to delist until we have, or we won't delist until

02:23we have them roaming downtown Denver and Boulder? Probably not.

02:30This delisting a species is almost impossible today because a radical environmentalist twisting

02:37the ESA process to lock up lands from energy development or agricultural uses. Let's just be

02:43honest what's happening. These are lawyers for radical environmental groups that are twisting

02:50the ESA and they're doing it at the expense of the livelihood of ranchers and farmers

02:57and agriculture interests all across the United States of America. That's what's happening. So,

03:04let's just be honest about that. Dr. Roberts, in your testimony you state that wolves are restored

03:12in the Great Lakes and Rocky Mountains. Why are you not concerned that wolves are not restored

03:18throughout the entire historic range? Well, I don't think that is necessary to consider a species

03:24restored. The wolves that we have in those regions and other regions

03:30is a sufficient enough population to ensure that they're not going to go extinct. And the purview,

03:36again, of the Endangered Species Act is to protect a species from extinction. It's clear that wolves

03:41in the United States are not at risk of extinction regardless of if they do not inhabit their entire

03:47historic range. As you pointed out, you know, where we sit right now in Washington, D.C.,

03:52there were once elk and black bear. They're not going to be here again. In some areas,

03:57we're just not going to have some species ever again. Yeah, and I would imagine there'll be some

04:01attorneys somewhere who will file a lawsuit and continue to use ESA as a weapon against

04:07rural Americans until there are elk roaming the streets of Washington, D.C. I mean, that's the

04:16insanity of this process that we have right now. We've got to fix this process. And Madam Chair,

04:22you can correct me on this because it's your home state of Wyoming. I was told that since the

04:27introduction of wolves into Yellowstone that the moose population in Wyoming is down 80 percent.

04:34Now, I don't know if you agree with that or not. Why do we love the animals with teeth that kill

04:42animals that eat grass more than the animals that eat grass? I don't understand this. It's insanity

04:48and it's not wildlife management. I'd yield back. Thank you.

04:57Madam Chair, I'd like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter

05:03from over 65 organizations opposing H.R. 1897 and H.R. 845.

05:10So ordered. The chair now recognizes Mr. Soto for five minutes of questioning.

Jeff Crank Decries 'Radical Environmentalists' Using ESA As 'A Weapon Against Rural Americans'

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