Interior Department reccommends opening wilderness areas to off-roaders

The Interior Department is recommending reopening wilderness areas to
off-roaders.
ROBERT HARBISON - STAFF/FILE

http://csmonitor.com/2003/1107/p03s01-uspo.html

Bush takes quiet aim at 'green' laws

Methods range from easing regulations to siding with industry in
lawsuits.

By Brad Knickerbocker | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

ASHLAND, OREGON – Slowly but surely, the Bush administration is using
courts and spending legislation to reverse Clinton-era trends in
environmental protection.
From the administration's point of view, this serves to: provide
balance to the conflict between protecting nature and advancing the
economy; give states and localities more say in such decisions; and
reduce the "analysis paralysis" that can hinder federal government
land managers from doing their job.



This is being done in several ways.

• Regulatory decisions by agencies such as the Environmental
Protection Agency and the Interior Department, now headed by Mike
Leavitt and Gale Norton instead of Carol Browner and Bruce Babbitt
(present and former heads of the EPA and Interior, respectively).
Changing regulations doesn't necessarily require new legislation.

• Siding with industries in federal lawsuits, such as the one accepted
this week by the US Supreme Court regarding off-road vehicles in
wilderness areas. Or, in the case of roadless areas in national
forests, not defending Clinton- imposed regulations when those were
challenged by the timber industry.

• And, as happened this week, attaching environmental waivers to the
Interior Department's appropriations bill.

Critics say this amounts to the piecemeal dismantling of important
environmental laws like the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts by
appointees who include former timber and mining lobbyists.
Administration officials say they're merely adjusting the excesses of
the Clinton administration, which included environmental activists in
senior posts.

Mr. Leavitt, the former Utah governor who took over Thursday as head
of the EPA, says, "I accepted this responsibility because I believe
the president is committed to substantially more progress on the
environment, and doing it in such a way that does not compromise our
place in the world competitively."

In any case, the politics of such trends are complicated and
potentially important and reflect the long-standing conflict between
eastern lawmakers and those from the West. Among recent actions:

Bush appointees at the EPA have sided with the Pentagon in seeking
exemption for military facilities from federal laws governing
hazardous waste, air quality, and endangered species.

The Interior Department now says that off-road vehicles should be
allowed in wilderness areas, even though agency experts had reported
that such vehicles cause environmental damage. What's more, the
administration argues in a legal case accepted this week by the US
Supreme Court, the public does not have the right to challenge such
decisions.

The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that "Bush administration
officials have drafted a rule that would significantly narrow the
scope of the Clean Water Act, stripping many wetlands and streams of
federal pollution controls and making them available to being filled
for commercial development.

"If implemented, the change would represent one of the most
consequential of the actions the Bush administration has taken to ease
environmental regulations," the newspaper reported.

In southern Oregon, the US Forest Service wants to salvage up to 1
billion board-feet of lumber from last year's 499,965-acre "Biscuit
Fire," including logging in 12,000 acres of roadless areas.

What particularly gripes local environmentalists is that the usual
period for public comment on the plan (90 days) has been cut in half.

Appropriations bills are a key vehicle in the effort. This week,
Congress sent to the president a $20-billion Interior Department
spending bill that includes administration-supported amendments
effecting environmental policy. For example, the bill would expedite
logging of national forests in Alaska and Montana. Next week, the
Senate takes up the appropriations bill that includes funds for the
EPA; that, too, can be expected to include amendments involving
environmental regulation, including one that deals with small engine
emissions.

There's a risky dimension to shifting federal environmental policy -
even in the name of "balance" - that leaves the administration open to
criticism. In a memo to Republican leaders earlier this year, GOP
pollster Frank Luntz warned that "the environment is probably the
single issue on which Republicans in general - and President Bush in
particular - are most vulnerable."

One indicator: Last week, 13 states and 20 cities sued the Bush
administration for its plan to adjust Clean Air Act regulations in a
way critics say will increase the emission of harmful pollutants. EPA
officials this week acknowledged that investigations of several dozen
power plants thought to be in violation of the Clean Air Act will be
dropped, confirming suspicions for critics of the administration plan
allowing power plants to upgrade without reducing emissions.

While Democrats are more likely to be considered "green" than
Republicans, much of the support for increased environmental
protection is bipartisan.

Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona was the lead sponsor of legislation to
reduce climate-changing greenhouse gases, which won a respectable 43
votes in the Senate last week. Eight Republican Senators joined
Democrats in blocking new oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. California Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) named the
leader of a conservation group to head the California Environmental
Protection Agency. He also promises to retrofit his Hummer to run on
clean-burning hydrogen