Nick Rahall: “Mr. Chairman, the fight over the use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park has raged on for more than a decade. In…”

“Mr. Chairman, the fight over the use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park has raged on for more than a decade. In the most recent round, the National Park Service found that these machines impair park resources, a finding which required a ban on this activity. Only days after taking office, President Bush shelved the ban and requested a new environmental assessment of the issue. So 2 years and 2.4 million tax dollars later, the new study came out; and, lo and behold, that study reached the same conclusions. Snowmobiles are bad for Yellowstone. Not to be deterred by the facts, however, the Bush administration has pursued not a ban but rather increased snowmobile use in the park and is set to issue new rules to implement this policy any day now. The fact that the administration is allowing public natural resources to be abused of course is not news. Virtually every environmental policy developed by this administration is crafted to benefit one industry or another. However, the Bush snowmobile policy is particularly devastating because it threatens not only Yellowstone's bison and bald eagles but also the entire process of environmental regulation. To wake up one morning in the Bush White House and decide to toss this policy out the window is not just wrong, it is dangerous.”