[Changleen]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/10/08/judges_in_west_resist_bush_ecology_policies/

Judges in West resist Bush ecology policies

Rulings criticize protection curbs

SEATTLE -- Using language that suggests they are fed up with the Bush administration, federal judges in the West have issued a flurry of rulings in recent weeks, chastising the government for repeated and sometimes willful failure to enforce laws protecting fish, forests, wildlife, and clean air.

In decisions from Oregon, California, Montana, and Wyoming, judges have criticized the judgment, expertise and, in some cases, integrity of the major federal agencies that manage natural resources on public lands.

The rulings were made at a time when an emerging bipartisan coalition of western politicians, hunters, anglers, and homeowners has joined conservation groups in objecting to the rapid pace and environmental consequences of Bush policies for energy extraction on federal land.

Specialists in environmental law say there has been a noticeable increase in the number of recent court rulings in which federal judges in the West have ruled against the administration, using blunt language that shows impatience and annoyance.

"You are seeing frustration in the federal judiciary," said Dan Rohlf, a law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, in Portland, Ore. The law school has the nation's oldest environmental law program. "When judges express that frustration on paper, which is not all that often, they are often reflecting what they see as a systematic effort to get around the law."

The most scathing and exasperated of the orders was handed down late last month in Portland, by US District Court Judge James Redden on an effort to prevent salmon from becoming extinct in the Columbia and Snake rivers.

US agencies "have repeatedly and collectively failed to demonstrate a willingness to do what is necessary" under the Endangered Species Act to save fish, he wrote.

The agencies that he said are refusing to enforce the law include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which leads the salmon recovery program; the Army Corps of Engineers; the Bureau of Reclamation; and the Bonneville Power Authority, which markets power from federal dams on the rivers.

Bob Lohn, regional head of NOAA Fisheries, declined to comment on Redden's criticism of his agency's work.

Costing billions of dollars, the effort to rescue salmon amid 14 huge hydroelectric dams is the most costly and complex action in the history of the Endangered Species Act.

Redden said last month that federal agencies now ``seem to be more concerned with ensuring" that Idaho irrigators get water for their crops than with mitigating the damage that dams and water diversions do to endangered fish.

Having tossed out two federal plans for running the river system (one of which was proposed late in the Clinton era), Redden warned that he "will not allow another invalid" plan to remain in place while urgent action is needed to protect salmon.

The warning suggested that the judge might halt the operation of federal dams on the Snake River.

US District Court Judge Charles Breyer ruled in San Francisco in August that the "Forest Service's interest in harvesting timber has trampled" laws protecting lands in and around California's Grand Sequoia National Monument.

Another federal judge in California, Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte, used scolding language two weeks ago in tossing out a Bush administration plan that would have allowed governors to decide what national forest land is suited for logging, mining or energy development.

Go Judges. Eat a dick Bush.

 

[MMike]

Freedom hating judges

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

hehehe, nothing more vain and narcissistic than the freedom hating arguments..
it always cracks me up

 

[dhbuilder]

i wouldn't put much stock in any decision that came from a judge "out west"

sorry there judge.
you'll never get an administration that'll be environmentally friendly enough to suit the people who are hell bent on spending their whole lives looking for something to protest or butch about.

none of us like it.
but that's just the way it is.

the next bunch of clowns to inhabit the white house won't be any better than the decades of administrations who've been in there in the past.

 

[syadasti]

the next bunch of clowns to inhabit the white house won't be any better than the decades of administrations who've been in there in the past.

The current administration rolled back 30 years of environmental legislation.

How could the next be any WORSE

 

[ohio]

none of us like it.
but that's just the way it is.

the next bunch of clowns to inhabit the white house won't be any better than the decades of administrations who've been in there in the past.

Why even bother posting in this forum then?

When your house gets a surprise bulldozing some morning I'll be sure to stand next to you, cross my arms and sigh "too bad. none of us like it, but that's just the way it is."

 

[Secret Squirrel]

i wouldn't put much stock in any decision that came from a judge "out west"

sorry there judge.
you'll never get an administration that'll be environmentally friendly enough to suit the people who are hell bent on spending their whole lives looking for something to protest or butch about.

none of us like it.
but that's just the way it is.

the next bunch of clowns to inhabit the white house won't be any better than the decades of administrations who've been in there in the past.

You retard.....I like eating salmon. I'd like them to stay around for my lifetime at least. There are ways to ensure their survival that are friendly to the current (and future) administrations. To just not open your eyes is dumb. I'm with Ohio...eminent domain is a bitch....

 

[$tinkle]

When your house gets a surprise bulldozing some morning I'll be sure to stand next to you, cross my arms and sigh "too bad. none of us like it, but that's just the way it is."

he'll get rachel corrie to protest against it.

oh wait...

 

[Changleen]

i wouldn't put much stock in any decision that came from a judge "out west"

sorry there judge.
you'll never get an administration that'll be environmentally friendly enough to suit the people who are hell bent on spending their whole lives looking for something to protest or butch about.

none of us like it.
but that's just the way it is.

the next bunch of clowns to inhabit the white house won't be any better than the decades of administrations who've been in there in the past.

Wow, you surpass your own previous level of idiocy with ever post. Maybe you should pay attention to reality a little more.

 

[$tinkle]

Wow, you surpass your own previous level of idiocy with ever post. Maybe you should pay attention to reality a little more.

i've been waiting for a good reason to break from my unblinking stare at MAF54's archived posts, and clearly this point-by-point cerebral-cum-socratic method is it.

with this succint post, you have flawlessly exposed dhbuilder as the charlatan/malefactor we have suspected all along. very brave work, and quite easily your finest hour.

 

[Changleen]

i've been waiting for a good reason to break from my unblinking stare at MAF54's archived posts, and clearly this point-by-point cerebral-cum-socratic method is it.

with this succint post, you have flawlessly exposed dhbuilder as the charlatan/malefactor we have suspected all along. very brave work, and quite easily your finest hour.

Aww gee shucks thanks.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

i've been waiting for a good reason to break from my unblinking stare at MAF54's archived posts, and clearly this point-by-point cerebral-cum-socratic method is it.

with this succint post, you have flawlessly exposed dhbuilder as the charlatan/malefactor we have suspected all along. very brave work, and quite easily your finest hour.

did you just say that his brain spooged on socrates???







:biggrin:

 

[DaveW]

hehehe, nothing more vain and narcissistic than the freedom hating arguments..
it always cracks me up

You argument hating freedomite!