Forest policy Friday
Bush, Citing Fires, Will Seek to Ease Laws on Logging
“The procedural requirements of our environmental laws are not supposed to wreak environmental havoc, and that’s what some of them are doing,” said James L. Connaughton, the chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality.
The proposal was denounced today by Democratic Congressional leaders and the Sierra Club, as well as other environmental groups, which described it as a backdoor means to provide the timber industry access to national forestland.
Environment Groups See Threat to Green Rules
“Given Bush’s track record on everything from global warming to forest protection to energy policy, their record says that they are listening to the special interests at the expense of the environment,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, spokeswoman for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
Bush Defends Logging Initiative as a Better Means of Management Against Forest Fires
Mr. Bush would give loggers greater leeway to cut larger, more commercially valuable trees as well as worthless brush, and would deny environmentalists legal tools they have used to block such logging.
