The shortest distance between two pointed heads is a straight deregulation

Back on February 1, I noted that the EPA was pretty much ignoring the requirement of the Endangered Species Act that it consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service on the potential effect on plants and wildlife before approving new pesticides. The solution offered was to eliminate the requirement.

Via The Hamster, we learn that's now exactly what's been done.

Interestingly, the changes were proposed after

a Washington judge ruled in January that farmers could not use nearly 40 pesticides around salmon-bearing streams because the federal and independent data showed the agents posed a threat to several kinds of salmon.

And it will go into force despite the fact that

several groups made public a National Marine Fisheries Service letter from April concluding that EPA did not use the best available science when it determined 28 common pesticides would not injure threatened and endangered salmon.

But who cares when we're "streamlining the bureaucracy?"