By Tom Kenworthy, USA TODAY Look at this old news that shows up again as the SEIS is about to be released with the new alternatives for Yellowstone. Obviously a very biased article Why doesn't USA TODAY go and check out Yellowstone for themselves and see how clean and quiet new machines such as the 4 Strokes available there are? Seemed to me during my visit that everybody was really excited about them. Glenn ###################### Review doesn't back overturning snowmobile ban By Tom Kenworthy, USA TODAY www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/02/01/usat-snowmobile.htm DENVER - A federal review of snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks has found little evidence to challenge a Clinton administration decision to ban the machines because of their impact on the environment. The environmental study by the National Park Service says that information from the snowmobile industry about technology designed to cut noise and air pollution is largely unconvincing or dated. However, the agency carefully avoided recommending either proceeding with the phaseout by the winter of 2003-04 or overturning it. A final decision by the Park Service is due by November. Snowmobiling in Yellowstone, the nation's oldest national park, has been seen by many environmental groups as a key test of the Bush administration's commitment to conservation. In ducking a recommendation on the issue for now, the Park Service appears to be walking a fine line. On the one hand is its long-standing view that snowmobiles are inconsistent with its mission of protecting wildlife and other resources. On the other hand is the current political reality of an administration that is more favorable to snowmobiles' continued use. Snowmobile enthusiasts - 80,000 a year - provide an important economic boost to communities around Yellowstone and Grand Teton, and many local and state officials oppose a ban. But public opposition to snowmobile use in the parks has grown. Last October, about 82% of people submitting comments to the Park Service said snowmobiles should be phased out. The environmental analysis was required by a court settlement in June of a lawsuit by the snowmobile industry and the states of Wyoming and Idaho to overturn the ban. Bush administration officials settled the case a few months after the Clinton administration finalized the proposed phaseout. Proponents of the ban said the industry's failure to provide compelling data that newer machines are cleaner bolsters their case for eliminating snowmobiles from the parks. But William Horn, an attorney for the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association, said snowmobile technology has changed dramatically since earlier Park Service studies. Two of the four companies that manufacture the machines now have quieter, less polluting engines, he said, and a third will have them next year. ********************************************************************************************** |