Posted on 03/01/2008 10:15:58 PM PST by SmithL
A federal appeals court has ruled that the Navy must protect endangered whales from the potentially lethal effects of underwater sonar during anti-submarine training off the Southern California coast, rejecting President Bush's attempt to exempt the exercises from environmental laws.
In a Friday night ruling rushed into print ahead of the next scheduled exercise on Monday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a federal judge's decision that no emergency existed that would justify Bush's intervention.
The Navy is engaged in "long-planned, routine training exercises" and has had ample time to take the steps that the law requires - conduct a thorough review of the environmental consequences and propose effective measures to minimize the harm to whales and other marine mammals, the three-judge panel said.
The court noted that the Navy has been conducting similar exercises for years, has agreed in the past to restrictions like the ones it is now challenging, and was sued by environmental groups in the current case nearly a year ago. The lower-court judge reviewed the evidence and found nothing to support the Navy's claim that the protective measures would interfere with vital training or hamper national security, the court said.
Past rulings have established that "there is no 'national defense exception' " to the National Environmental Policy Act, the court said. That law requires government agencies to review projects that might harm the environment and propose reasonable protective measures.
Nonetheless, the panel allowed naval commanders to modify two of the restrictions if they arose during a "critical point in the exercise," when certain levels of sonar are needed for effective training. The modifications reduce the protective zones within which vessels must reduce or shut down sonar when whales are detected.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Perhaps our Armed Forces could opt out if asked to protect the Bay Area? The Bay Area has not been supportive of our Military for a long time.
The problem is, IF we are protecting them already, we are doing it in ways we can’t tell the court.
Great, whales are safe but America is not. Sarc Were screwed.
Toss the whales ear plugs. That should take care of it.
Isn’t San Fran one of the only cities to have been attacked by a sub?
The Navy should do it anyway.
How are the pukers going to know?
-PJ
Somebody please show me the part in the Constitution that says gives the judiciary the authority to give orders to the armed forces?
Just what in the hell is happening out there!? I was stationed in Alameda back in the early 80’s and can remember crossing the Bay for Fleet Week in San Francisco. I remember how many families brought their kids and how proud I was to be doing what I did. There seemed to be a genuine respect for the sacrifices we made. Now they don’t want us to even dock. Something has gone terribly wrong.
As for the 9th Circus, ignore them.
Six and a half million people in the Bay Area, 15% are conservative - mostly hard core conservatives. That’s a population of about a million conservatives.
The crowds for fleet week are still huge, 200,000 last year if memory serves. But there is no more naval presence on San Francisco Bay. All the naval bases are shut down. Alameda is a preserve for something called a clapper rail. Mare Island, Port Chicago, are closed down. Moffett field is now NASA only.
Last year the city government actually tried to stop the Blue Angels from flying. God alone knows why the Navy did just tell them to go amuse themselves in the manner they fined most pleasurable.
So if a war breaks, our Armed Forces can't explode any bombs unless they do a field studies on how much the flora and fauna at the "BOOM" point will get impacted? MORONS!
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