Judge blocks Bush Administration's plan to destroy environment

[ck4829]

A federal judge on Wednesday reinstated the "Roadless Rule," a Clinton administration ban on road construction in nearly a third of U.S. national forests.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte ruled that the Bush administration failed to conduct necessary environmental studies before making changes that allowed states to decide how to manage individual national forests.

The 2001 rule prohibits logging, mining and other development on 58.5 million acres (23.4 million hectares) in 38 states and Puerto Rico, but the Bush administration replaced it in May 2005 with a process that required governors to petition the federal government to protect national forests in their states.

Laporte sided with 20 environmental groups and four states — California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington — that sued the U.S. Forest Service over the changes.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/20/america/NA_GEN_US_Roadless_Forests.php

[Frustratedlady]

1. * is getting it from the female judges. You go, girl!