Judge: Bush cannot exempt Navy on sonar limits

[unhappycamper]

Judge: Bush cannot exempt Navy on sonar limits
By Andrew Dalton - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 4, 2008 21:52:07 EST

LOS ANGELES — President Bush cannot exempt the Navy from environmental laws placing strict limits on sonar training that environmentalists argue is harmful to whales, a federal judge ruled Monday.

“We are aware of the court’s decision and we are studying it,” said Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Moore in Washington D.C.

The president signed a waiver Jan. 15 exempting the Navy and its anti-submarine warfare exercises from a preliminary injunction creating a 12-nautical-mile, no-sonar zone along California’s Southern coast. The Navy’s attorneys argued in court last week that he was within his legal rights.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote in a 36-page decision Monday that the Navy is not “exempted from compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and this Court’s injunction.”

Environmentalists have been fighting the use of sonar in court, saying it is harmful to whales and other marine mammals.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_navysonar_080204/