Is there any federal agency under the Bush regime's control that hasn't defied the courts yet?
If found in contempt, Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, faces jail time until his federal agency complies with a court order to perform an environmental review.
The U.S. Forest Service’s failure to analyze the environmental impact of dropping fish-killing fire retardant on wildfires in the state has prompted a federal judge in Montana to order the Bush administration’s top forestry official to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt of court.
This is the second time Rey has blocked implementation of the review process of this issue, and apparently, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Malloy in Missoula, Montana has had enough, ordering Rey to appear in his court on Oct.15 unless the Forest Service completes the analysis beforehand.
Yahoo! Finance is carrying the AP story:
Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh said the agency was working on the analysis, but he could not say whether they would meet the new deadline, because it was two months away. Rey did not immediately respond to a request for an interview.
Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE), an environmental group based in Eugene, filed the lawsuit in 2003, a year after more than 20,000 fish were killed when toxic retardant was dropped in Fall Creek in central Oregon.
In 2005, Malloy ruled that the Forest Service violated the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act when it failed to go through a public process to analyze the potential environmental harm of using ammonium phosphate, a fertilizer that kills fish, as the primary ingredient in fire retardant dropped on wildfires.
Back in February 2006, the Forest Service was given until Aug. 8th to comply, noting that if more time was needed to complete the review, the agency was to contact the plaintiffs well in advance of that date, and not come to him just before the deadline was to expire. The Forest Service request for an extension was indeed filed on the final day.
"It seems as if the government is playing a not too funny game, betting that the court will be forced to grant the additional time and hoping the irony of the timing will be overlooked," the judge wrote.
The FSEEE’s group executive director, Andy Stahl, told the AP that he had asked the judge to specifically hold Rey responsible for the obstructionism. A former timber industry lobbyist, Rey has been manipulating Forest Service policies to make it easier to log in national forests.
"I'm sure this order has got the government's attention," said Stahl. "I think they have to take a hard look at their 100-year war against wildfire and explore alternatives that will allow us to live with fire, and that is what they don't want us to do."
Stahl said the Forest Service appears to be immune legally from fines, but not from jail time to pressure them to complete the environmental review.
"You can throw them in jail to coerce future good behavior," Stahl said.
A "100-year war" [that would take it all the way back to the Theodore Roosevelt era] against wildfire does seem to have failed across the board, but it has been clear that efforts to marginalize vital environmental programs specifically enacted to keep our forests, streams, rivers and lakes clean and vibrant have increased over the decades, and especially during the Bush administration, whose environmental record is sorely lacking.
It’s just too bad that the Bush administration’s disdain for the rule of law is not equally deficient.
Throw da bums out!
Peace