Bush gets another Yellowstone smackdown

Once again, a federal judge has said that Bush's Yellowstone snowmobile policy will not pass environmental muster.

The Bush admin has agreed to a 40 percent cutback in its proposal as a short-term measure. With a new, Democratic administration in place, a long-term solution that's even less intrusive should be on the way.

Good Interior news from Kempthorne so far

New Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has made a first commitment to revert national parks to Clinton-promulgated rules restricting snowmobile use. Sounds good so far, but let’s definitely not count these chickens before they hatch.

Kristen Brengel, a lobbyist for the Wilderness Society, described the new policy draft as good but noted that lobbyists for commercial and recreation interests still have three weeks to change Kempthorne's mind.

“It’s not over yet,” Brengel said. “Now Kempthorne will have his first opportunity to show whether he can be a true steward of the national parks.”

The new policy draft, if retained, could also put the clamps on cell phone towers in national parks. We can only hope, for one less eyesore, one less push by cell phone companies for park commercialization, and, above all — one more weight in the scales of reducing noise pollution, specifically in this case, the noise pollution coming from cell phone chatterers.

You know who you are. If you can’t stop yammering, then don’t visit Yellowstone or Yosemite in the first place.