The Bush administration won't weaken wetlands protection rules, leaving the issue for Bill Clinton when he takes office next year, a senior government official said Saturday.
Michael Deland, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the National Academy of Sciences has been asked to review the controversial wetlands rules and issue a report next year.Deland said administration decisionmakers had hoped to reach agreement on what rule changes to make but said that "proved impossible. So it seemed to be a solid decision to have an independent group like the National Academy review it," he said.
The issue rose again last week after reports that Vice President Dan Quayle had raised the possibility of acting before the end of the year to weaken the rules that prevent landowners from developing wetlands. Quayle spokesman David Beckwith denied that, saying that White House "staff talked about it, but there was no enthusiasm whatsoever at the top."
Some 100 million acres of wetlands remain in the United States, about half the total of a century ago.
Deland contended that protection of the wetlands "dramatically increased" in the Bush years. He said only 150,000 acres have been lost to developers this year compared with 300,000 acres in all of 1989.