Activists: Timber Suit Based on Draft Regulations
In a lawsuit characterized as “downright bizarre” by a Seattle newspaper blog, a timber industry lawyer who formerly worked for the Bush administration has made a legal claim based on draft environmental regulations.
Mark Rutzick, now a private practitioner in Portland, Ore., was formerly a special counsel at the National Marine Fisheries Service, where his work focused on the Endangered Species Act. Apparently, this may have had something to do with the fact that the suit he filed seeking to eliminate endangered species status for the marbled murrelet is based on draft regs that haven’t yet been released for public review, says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in a staff-written environmental blog.
“Today enviros sent the D.C. court a motion to intervene and a motion to dismiss,” writes P-I reporter Robert McClure, “the latter based on the fact that, well, this suit is based on regs that for now are just wishful Bush administration thinking.”
