* Exempts Navy From Environmental Law - Sonar That Harms Whales, Dolphins A-OK

[babylonsister]

Bush exempts Navy from environmental law

Bush Exempts Navy From Environmental Law to Continue Military Exercises Off California Coast

PAULINE JELINEK
AP News

Jan 16, 2008 09:32 EST

President Bush exempted the Navy from an environmental law so it can continue using sonar in its anti-submarine warfare training off the California coast — a practice critics say is harmful to whales and other marine mammals.

The White House announced Wednesday that Bush had signed the exemption Tuesday while traveling in the Middle East.

The Navy training exercises, including the use of sonar, "are in the paramount interest of the United States" and its national security, Bush said in a memorandum.

"This exemption will enable the Navy to train effectively and to certify carrier and expeditionary strike groups for deployment in support of worldwide operational and combat activities, which are essential to national security," the memo said.

A federal judge had issued a preliminary injunction earlier this month requiring the Navy to create a 12-nautical-mile, no-sonar zone along the California coast and to post trained lookouts to watch for marine mammals before and during exercises. Sonar would have to be shut down when mammals are spotted within 2,200 yards, under the order.

The court found that using mid-frequency active sonar violated the Coastal Zone Management Act and Bush exempted the Navy from a section of that act.

Complying with the environmental law would "undermine the Navy's ability to conduct realistic training exercises that are necessary to ensure the combat effectiveness of carrier and expeditionary strike groups," Bush said.

more...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/01/bush_exempts_navy_from_environ.php

[stellanoir]

1. Not only is this utterly nauseating & thoroughly reprehensibly sadistic

but it also serves no purpose whatsoever.

[babylonsister]

2. I think the dim one enjoys raising people's ire; he's really great at it.

:grr:

[nightrider767]

3. It will take this country a good twenty years...

To recover from the Bush presidency...

And that's assuming their is a recovery.

[Annces]

4. Bush and the rest

only care about nature dying to provide them more money.

[DCKit]

5. The unitard executive strikes again.

I guess he believes that, if cetaceans were really THAT smart, they wouldn't be hanging out where the navy is blasting the waters with incredibly powerful sonar. Too bad they can't return the favor.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

6. No, Goddamit! They are unaccountable to our laws?

Over and over again, they run roughshod over our laws and our moral principles. How much is enough to warrant tossing these criminals out?

[sakabatou]

7. * says: Mother Earth has now become a ter'ist.

Tomorrow, we'll see her arrested and led to Gitmo. Heheheh.

[krispos42]

8. I don't see why the Navy just doesn't go out into deeper water

Our Navy is, after all, a blue-water navy, not green or brown.

However, I would like to point out that the Navy does not use active sonar much. It can be heard much much further than it can detect, much like a flashlight can been seen much further than it illuminates.