Washington — The Bush administration on Friday proposed suspending former President Clinton's ban on road-building and logging in a third of the nation's federal forestland.
Government lawyers made the proposal in a filing with a federal court seeking to postpone a scheduled March 30 hearing on Idaho's request for a preliminary injunction to keep the ban from going into effect.
Environmentalists immediately voiced concern that President Bush was signaling his intention to reverse the regulations Clinton put into place in the final days of his presidency.
"This was their first opportunity to come in and defend the policy and instead they've come in with an offer to suspend it," said Tim Preso, a staff attorney for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.
The administration's move is the latest in a series to raise concerns among environmentalists. Bush this week abandoned his campaign pledge to curtail power plants' carbon dioxide emissions and suggested exploring public lands and national monuments for energy resources. He also has made drilling in an Arctic wildlife refuge a centerpiece of his national energy plan.
The Clinton ban, widely applauded by environmentalist and denounced by the timber industry, would affect 58 million of forest acres where no roads currently exist.
Supporters say the ban would protect the nation's forests against developers and preserve critical habitat for animals and fish.
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