Top officials side with Utah environmental groups on land issue
Saturday, February 21, 2004 - 12:00 AM
Robert Gehrke THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
WASHINGTON -- Top environmental officials from every presidential administration since Richard Nixon urged the Supreme Court to side with environmentalists to force the Bush administration to consider limiting off-road vehicle use on delicate Utah lands.
The case, filed by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, argues that the Bureau of Land Management is required by law to consider closing certain areas to prevent permanent damage by off-road vehicles. The areas at issue in the suit are potential wilderness areas.
In a brief filed with the Supreme Court this week, the eight former directors of the White House Council on Environmental Quality argued that the Interior Department must take steps to protect sensitive lands in its care when factors change.
"It's unlike building a dam. That's a one-shot affair where the dam is built and that is it," said Nicholas Yost, a former CEQ general counsel under President Carter, who wrote the brief. "The management of public lands under consideration for wilderness designation is something that is an ongoing responsibility."
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with that view in a ruling in August 2002.
The Bush administration and off-roading groups appealed, arguing that studying areas for closure is a discretionary duty of the executive branch and courts cannot force the administration to exercise it. If the courts do force the government to act, the normal administrative process would be replaced with unending environmental lawsuits, they argue.
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled before the Supreme Court on March 29.
Specifically, the SUWA is seeking to compel the BLM to consider restricting off-road use in nine areas, including Parunweap, adjacent to Zion National Park; Moquith Mountain, home to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes; Behind the Rocks, southwest of Arches National Park; Indian Creek, near Canyonlands National Park; Sids Mountain; and Muddy Creek-Crack Canyon near Capitol Reef National Park.
SUWA argues that off-road vehicle use has grown 900 percent in the state since 1980, but there have been no consideration given to potential harm to landscapes.
"BLM can't stick its head in the sand and pretend that there isn't off-road vehicle damage when it's as plain as the nose on your face that it's there," said SUWA attorney Heidi McIntosh.
The CEQ brief is one of at least eight "friend of the court" filings in the case.
Most have backed SUWA, including one filed by the attorneys general for California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Joining the CEQ brief were Russell Train, the chairman under Nixon; Russell Patterson, chairman in the Nixon and Ford administrations; John Busterud, chairman under Ford; Charles Warren and J. Gustave Speth, chairmen for President Carter; Michael Deland who served under President Bush; and Kathleen McGinty and George Frampton, who held the post in the Clinton White House.
Three CEQ general counsels also took part in the brief, including Yost.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.
You gotta love people from out of state trying to shut us down
Saturday, February 21, 2004 - 12:00 AM
Robert Gehrke THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
WASHINGTON -- Top environmental officials from every presidential administration since Richard Nixon urged the Supreme Court to side with environmentalists to force the Bush administration to consider limiting off-road vehicle use on delicate Utah lands.
The case, filed by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, argues that the Bureau of Land Management is required by law to consider closing certain areas to prevent permanent damage by off-road vehicles. The areas at issue in the suit are potential wilderness areas.
In a brief filed with the Supreme Court this week, the eight former directors of the White House Council on Environmental Quality argued that the Interior Department must take steps to protect sensitive lands in its care when factors change.
"It's unlike building a dam. That's a one-shot affair where the dam is built and that is it," said Nicholas Yost, a former CEQ general counsel under President Carter, who wrote the brief. "The management of public lands under consideration for wilderness designation is something that is an ongoing responsibility."
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with that view in a ruling in August 2002.
The Bush administration and off-roading groups appealed, arguing that studying areas for closure is a discretionary duty of the executive branch and courts cannot force the administration to exercise it. If the courts do force the government to act, the normal administrative process would be replaced with unending environmental lawsuits, they argue.
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled before the Supreme Court on March 29.
Specifically, the SUWA is seeking to compel the BLM to consider restricting off-road use in nine areas, including Parunweap, adjacent to Zion National Park; Moquith Mountain, home to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes; Behind the Rocks, southwest of Arches National Park; Indian Creek, near Canyonlands National Park; Sids Mountain; and Muddy Creek-Crack Canyon near Capitol Reef National Park.
SUWA argues that off-road vehicle use has grown 900 percent in the state since 1980, but there have been no consideration given to potential harm to landscapes.
"BLM can't stick its head in the sand and pretend that there isn't off-road vehicle damage when it's as plain as the nose on your face that it's there," said SUWA attorney Heidi McIntosh.
The CEQ brief is one of at least eight "friend of the court" filings in the case.
Most have backed SUWA, including one filed by the attorneys general for California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Joining the CEQ brief were Russell Train, the chairman under Nixon; Russell Patterson, chairman in the Nixon and Ford administrations; John Busterud, chairman under Ford; Charles Warren and J. Gustave Speth, chairmen for President Carter; Michael Deland who served under President Bush; and Kathleen McGinty and George Frampton, who held the post in the Clinton White House.
Three CEQ general counsels also took part in the brief, including Yost.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.
You gotta love people from out of state trying to shut us down
