Bush violated forest rules

A federal judge ruled this week that the Administration illegally made its own rules for managing 192 million acres of federally owned land, while ignoring existing law.  Bottom line: Bush's forest rules have been canceled by the court.  The judge ruled that Bush was in violation because the Administration ignored three existing laws regarding drilling and logging:

• National Environmental Policy Act
• Administrative Procedures Act
• Endangered Species Act

So what did Bush's illegal rules allow? 

The new rule -- which gave economic activities as high a priority asmaintaining the forest's ecological health -- made it easier to conductdrilling and logging in national forests while weakening protectionsfor native fish and wildlife. It also accelerated the process forapproving forest management plans, which can drag on for as long asseven years, thereby cutting planning costs.. 

It turns out that a timber industry lobbyist helped craft Bush's illegal forest rules:

"These regulations were designed by a former timber industry lobbyist,"said Sean Cosgrove of the Sierra Club, one of the 15 environmentalgroups who sued. "They would have silenced the voices of citizens inlocal forest planning and allowed destructive projects to move forwardwith little oversight."

Now watch for the Administration to restart their quest against "activist judges."

Comments

[Tony]

That's about right for the Bush administration. It goes hand in hand with his
plan to gut
the Endangered Species Act