The White House has finally given approval to a rule that would protect the North Atlantic right whale, one of the planet's most critically endangered marine species.

Last Monday, September 15, OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — the White House office in charge of reviewing and editing new regulations — approved the rule "consistent with change" (its most common designation for rules it has reviewed). OIRA had been reviewing the rule since Feb. 20, 2007. Since agencies cannot go forward without OIRA's blessing, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been unable to make substantive progress on the rule for more than one-and-a-half years.

According to the executive order that governs the OIRA review process, OIRA has 90 days to review agency proposals. OIRA, in consultation with the agency, may extend the period once by 30 days. So, under the White House's own rules, OIRA is not supposed to hold up rules for more than 120 days.

OIRA reviewed the right whale rule for 573 days.

During that time, OIRA and other White House offices tried hard to derail NOAA's efforts to protect the species by imposing speed limits on large ships sailing in the Atlantic during certain seasons. The office of Vice President Dick Cheney attacked NOAA's scientific basis for the rule saying, "[W]e have no evidence (i.e., hard data) that lowering the speeds of 'large ships' will actually make a difference."

The White House Council of Economic Advisors even went so far as to rerun statistical models the agency used to come to its determination.

For now, we don't know what the version of the rule OIRA approved looks like. The proposed rule, published way back in June 2006, called for a speed limit of 10 knots up to 30 nautical miles off the coast.

In August, NOAA released an environmental impact statement that may be a precursor to the final regulation. Fortunately, in that document, NOAA maintained the 10 knot limit. Unfortunately, it shrank the protection zone to only 20 nautical miles. A NOAA official acknowledged the agency was considering the change under pressure from the White House and the shipping industry.

Why now? Perhaps the White House is finally standing aside because it wants to move a weaker version of the rule while President Bush is still in office. A future administration may want a more stringent standard that keeps the speed limit and extends the protection area to 30 nautical miles, as under the original proposal.

Who knows what NOAA's plans are now that it controls the rule's destiny once again? Hopefully, it will publish the rule soon in a form most protective of the right whale. After all, fewer than 300 remain, and experts warn that even one more dead female could set the species on an irrevocable path toward extinction. Reg•Watch hopes this drama will soon be over.

Yesterday, a federal court delivered a win for conservationists when it overturned a Bush administration policy that would have opened Yellowstone National Park to unacceptable numbers of snowmobiles. Juliet Eilperin reports for The Washington Post:

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan threw out the National Park Service's 2007 plan, calling it "arbitrary and capricious, unsupported by the record, and contrary to law." The administration rule would have allowed 540 recreational snowmobiles and 83 snow coaches a day to enter Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway. Sullivan said the plan violated the agency's mission statement.

Luckily for environmental advocates and park wildlife, the National Park Service did a good job making the case against its own policy. Had the Park Service chosen to ban snowmobiles and allow only snowcoaches (like public buses on the snow), it reports the adverse effects on air quality would be "negligible." Instead, under the 540-snowmobiles-per-day plan, the effects would be "moderate."

Another environmental consideration, "natural soundscapes," would also suffer under the plan to allow 540 snowmobiles per day, according to the Park Service itself. Furthermore, according to the Post, "Studies by the agency have found that snowmobiles in Yellowstone have frequently exceeded noise thresholds."

Choosing a policy option that is obviously not the most environmentally protective doesn't jibe with federal law. According to the Post, the act which created the Park Service "states that the agency's overriding mandate is to 'conserve park resources and values,' but it permits federal managers to 'allow impacts' as long as they do not impair the park's resources."

In his opinion, Judge Sullivan wrote, the act "clearly states, and Defendants concede, that the fundamental purpose of the national park system is to conserve park resources and values."

Sullivan's decision is the latest chapter in an ongoing saga. For at least a decade, the limit on snowmobiles in Yellowstone has been the subject of a pitched battle between conservationists and snowmobile advocates. Just before leaving office in Jan. 2001, the Clinton administration banned all snowmobile use in Yellowstone. The Bush administration was able to delay implementation until a federal court invalidated the ban in 2004 in a case brought by the snowmobile industry. The Park Service then instituted a temporary cap, which it then replaced with the 540 per day cap.

The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association has already pledged to appeal Sullivan's decision, according to The New York Times.