Once the tortoise raced the hare. Now it has a more abstract opponent in the form of economic development.
Just ask residents in the Las Vegas area, where new home owners are required to pay a $500 "tortoise mitigation fee" to finance habitant for desert tortoise displaced by commercial growth.
A lot of other animals have also entered the race. The tortoise fee and other efforts to protect endangered species throughout the United States were catalogued in a recent issue of Credit Week Municipal, in which Standard & Poor's Corp. assessed the economic impact of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The act currently protects more than 700 species, with 600 candidates awaiting inclusion.
Standard & Poor's said some preservation efforts, such as those for the northern spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest, can affect entire industries, with consequent damage to production, employment, and the tax base.
Attempts to save the owl, for example, by prohibiting log exports from most public lands in the Northwest, could cost 32,000 jobs, $328 million in revenue to the federal government, and $100 million in revenue to local governments, the agency said.
In California, efforts to save the Sacramento River Delta smelt could affect many facets of the state's already beleaguered economy, the rating agency said.
To preserve the fish, limits may be imposed on the pumping of water from the delta into the state water project system, which among other things is used for irrigation and residential consumption. If so, the agency said, electricity costs would increase and thousands of jobs would be lost. Moreover, similar efforts to protect winter-run salmon could further exacerbate California's troubles by cutting water delivery to farmers by 25%, Standard & Poor's said.
"The impact on credit ratings will become apparent over time as recovery plans are developed and implemented," Standard & Poor's said. "For municipalities that depend on sensitive industries, the impacts could be severe."
