Groups step up campaign against Bush proposal to open forests

Washington (Platts)--3Mar2006

Opponents of a Bush administration proposal that could open millions of
acres of forest land to energy and other commercial development on Thursday
intensified their campaign to reinstate a Clinton administration rule that
declared those areas off limits. 

     US Senator Maria Cantell, Democrat-Washington, introduced for the third
time legislation that would codify the Clinton rule, which blocked road
construction on 58 million acres of Forest Service land nationwide (S. 2364).
Similar legislation introduced by Cantwell in the previous two Congresses
never advanced beyond referrals to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee. 

     Environmentalists believe the measure, as well as a companion bill in the
House (H.R. 3563) stands little chance this year, but it could advance next
year if Democrats retake the Senate in this fall's elections.

     The Forest Service is not expected to finalize its rewrite of the rule,
which allows governors to petition the agency on how to protect roadless
areas, until well into next year. 

     Meanwhile, conservationists on Thursday also presented the Forest Service
with a petition signed by more than 250,000 people to revoke the new rule.
They are afforded the petition right under the Administrative Procedures Act,
a move one environmental community source said was designed to build a record
of support for future legal challenges of the Bush rule. 

     This week, Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine, a Democrat, also wrote the
Forest Service asking it to provide "full protection" for the state's roadless
areas, and Montana and Maine joined a state suit filed last year that seeks to
block the new rule.

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