Great--the enviromental issues are hitting the front pages!!
Just like BushCo to release this story just before Christmas when people have other things on their minds.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2111412/The Los Angeles Times, NYT, and WP all front the new from the administration rules making it easier for forest service officials to approve logging and drilling. The Post calls it the "biggest change in forest-use policies in nearly three decades" and says it includes "jettisoning some environmental protections" that have been around 20 years. The revisions, which will cut lots of paperwork, also allow economic development issues to get equal weight as environmental concerns. The LAT does a bit of digging, and notices that three of President Bush's "elite fund-raisers" were timber execs.
And this is from an earlier posting on this board:
Administration Overhauls Rules for U.S. Forests
By FELICITY BARRINGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/23/politics/23forest.htm... Published: December 23, 2004
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 -The Bush administration issued broad new rules Wednesday overhauling the guidelines for managing the nation's 155 national forests and making it easier for regional forest managers to decide whether to allow logging, drilling or off-road vehicles.
The long-awaited rules relax longstanding provisions on environmental reviews and the protection of wildlife on 191 million acres of national forest and grasslands. They also cut back on requirements for public participation in forest planning decisions.