[CPEO-MEF] Bush exempts Navy sonar from whale protection

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

White House Fights Ruling Limiting Navy's Use of Sonar

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post
January 16, 2008

The White House yesterday sought to overrule a federal court's decision 
limiting the Navy's use of sonar in training exercises, exempting the 
service from complying with two major environmental laws.

Environmentalists who sued to limit the use of loud, mid-frequency sonar 
-- which can be harmful to whales and other marine mammals -- said the 
exemptions were unprecedented and could lead to a larger legal battle 
over the extent to which the military has to follow environmental laws.

In a court filing yesterday, government attorneys said President Bush 
had determined that allowing the use of mid-frequency sonar in ongoing 
exercises off southern California was "essential to national security" 
and of "paramount interest to the United States."

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011601536.html?hpid=moreheadlines


-- 


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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