The White House has exempted the Navy from two major environmental laws in an effort to free the service from a federal court's decision limiting the Navy's use of sonar in training exercises.
Environmentalists who had sued successfully to limit the Navy's use of loud, mid-frequency sonar -- which can be harmful to whales and other marine mammals -- said yesterday that the exemptions were unprecedented and could lead to a larger legal battle over the extent to which the military has to obey environmental laws.In a court filing Tuesday, government lawyers said President Bush had determined that allowing the use of mid-frequency sonar in ongoing exercises off Southern California was "essential to national security" and of "paramount interest to the United States."
Based on that, the documents said, Bush issued the order exempting the Navy from provisions of the Coastal Zone Management Act, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality granted the Navy a waiver from the National Environmental Protection Act.
The government filings said the federal ruling limiting sonar use "profoundly interferes with the Navy's global management of U.S. strategic forces, its ability to conduct warfare operations, and ultimately places the lives of American sailors and Marines at risk."
The exemptions were immediately challenged by the environmental group that had sued the Navy and by the California Coastal Commission, a state agency that ruled last year that the Navy's plans to protect marine mammals were too limited and deeply flawed.
"There is absolutely no justification for this," commission member Sara Wan said in a statement. "Both the court and the Coastal Commission have said that the Navy can carry out its mission as well as protect the whales."
Given the way the previous court case was resolved, I suspect that the administration is going to end up losing on this one, too. The difference, however, is that this time a much, much larger will be at stake. In the first case it was only this specific issue that was under consideration. The next time around, however, the courts will be focused to look at these new claims of broad executive authority.
I realize that right now things look back, but in my more optimistic moments (for example, now) I cannot help but wonder if in the end, decades from now, we'll end up with a much more limited understanding of presidential power. In an effort to expand the powers of the office far beyond what the constitution outlines, the Bush administration has acted in ways that will force the courts to intervene. They may think that's to their advantage, but I suspect in the end it won't be.
But getting back to this specific issue... I'd be lying if I said I was surprised by all this. They could have worked to find a compromise, but when you believe that you can use national security to rewrite the rules at will, why bother?
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