The Wyoming federal judge who struck down environmental protections for roadless areas ruled Friday that he was helpless to prevent the rule from being reinstated.
U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer expressed dismay that the 2001 roadless rule issued by President Clinton – which set aside 58 million acres of federal lands from future road construction, gas exploration and other developments – could be restored by a lower-ranking judge in California and upheld by an appeals court.
“This court is extremely perplexed over how the California court could resurrect the Clinton roadless rule. … This court is troubled and questions the authority of the California court to raise this rule back to life,” Brimmer wrote.
Nonetheless, he said he could not ignore the decision of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturning his 2003 ruling that the Clinton rule was invalid.
Friday’s decision is the latest installment in the lengthy legal feud over the 2001 rule, adopted in the final days of the Clinton administration after more than 600 public meetings and more than a million public comments that overwhelmingly supported protecting the nation’s remaining roadless areas.
In 2005, a day after the federal appeals court heard arguments over Brimmer’s decision knocking down the Clinton rule, the Bush administration issued a new roadless-protection rule, asking states to submit their own petitions on which lands, if any, should be preserved.
State plan submitted
After a year-long public-input process before a special task force, then- Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, submitted a petition last fall to preserve 4.4 million acres of federal land in the state; two months ago, his successor, Democrat Bill Ritter, modified the petition by asking that it be considered only if the Clinton rule is stricken down and calling for a freeze on new roads until the court battle is over.
Meanwhile, California federal Magistrate Judge Elizabeth LaPorte, in a separate case, found that the process behind the development of the Bush administration rule violated federal law and reinstated the Clinton rule that Brimmer had dismissed.
Greg Mumm, executive director of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, an umbrella organization for motorized-recreation groups, said Brimmer’s criticism of the LaPorte ruling was “encouraging.”
“We’re looking forward to future opportunities to get it resolved correctly,” he said.
“Not the end of the war”
Jim Angell, an attorney for EarthJustice who represents the Wyoming Outdoor Council in the case, said Brimmer had little choice but to defer to the appeals court, and he took delight in the fact that the Clinton rule remains the law of the land.
“This was not the end of the war,” Angell said. “It’s one of the battles, but it’s one that could have … opened a whole lot of areas to immediate development, including a whole bunch of oil and gas leases here in Colorado, oil and gas leases in Utah, as well as logging throughout the country.
“None of those projects can go forward now, and we’re going to work to make sure they never go forward.”
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
