James Oberstar: “Mr. Chairman, those who are here advocating a limitation or banning of snowmobiles from Yellowstone and perhaps from…”

“Mr. Chairman, those who are here advocating a limitation or banning of snowmobiles from Yellowstone and perhaps from other national parks are operating under what I am convinced is a misguided understanding of snowmobiling. They are probably thinking of snowmobiles as they existed 10, 15, 20 years ago, not the snowmobiles that have been developed in recent years and which meet and even exceed the stringent standards that the National Park Service has established for snowmobile use in our national parks, as in Voyagers National Park in my district and as we are talking about with Yellowstone. Some years ago, there were 2,000 snowmobiles a day allowed in the park. Today that is 740. Fifteen years ago, they were noisier, perhaps more emissions emitted from such machines. Today it is vastly different. Snowmobile technology has vastly improved. The primary snow machine used in Yellowstone and in Voyagers has emissions 97 percent lower for particulates and 85 percent lower for carbon monoxide than machines used just even 5 years ago. The U.S. manufacturing sector, Polaris, Arctic Cat, Bombardier, have invested millions, even tens of millions of dollars to improve the quality of their snowmobiles to operate in our national parks and elsewhere throughout the United States.”