Judge strikes down Bush plan for snowmobiling in Yellowstone

[Judi Lynn]

Judge strikes down Bush plan for snowmobiling in Yellowstone

JACK SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, December 16, 2003
(12-16) 19:44 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

The National Park Service must revive a plan scrapped by the Bush administration to ban snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, a federal judge ordered Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said the Bush administration should not have set aside a Clinton administration plan that would have banned snowmobiles in favor of mass-transit snow coaches, which would reduce pollution in the parks.

The administration dropped that plan and decided to instead allow limited snowmobiling to continue under rules that only allowed snowmobiles with quieter and less-polluting engines.

The Park Service had said the cleaner snowmobiles and limited entries would protect the park while allowing snowmobiling to continue, even though the earlier snow coach plan was the best way to protect the parks from pollution. (snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/12/16/national2004EST0700.DTL