Judge issues order lifting federal suspension of logging sales

Pointless at this point?

 

Judge issues order lifting federal suspension of logging sales

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

Published: Thursday, October 17, 2013

A federal judge in Oregon today issued a restraining order blocking the Obama administration from enforcing its earlier suspension of timber sales during the government shutdown.

The order by Judge Owen Panner of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon came the same day the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service directed regional staff to begin allowing timber contractors to resume operations with the shutdown over.

The order follows a lawsuit filed this week by the American Forest Resource Council and three wood products manufacturing companies in the Pacific Northwest that argued the administration’s suspension of timber sales during the 16-day government shutdown was illegal (E&ENews PM, Oct. 15).

Tom Partin, president of AFRC, today said the judge did not rule on the merits of the suspensions but issued the order so individual contractors do not have to wait to receive approval to return to work.

“It will take a few days to get those out to the folks in the forest,” Partin said. “We greatly appreciate the judge’s [temporary restraining order] today.”

The industry had argued in the lawsuit that the suspensions were illegal because the supervision of logging activities is not “critical” and therefore activity should have continued in the absence of appropriations.

It remains to be seen whether any companies will file breach-of-contract claims against the government for lost production during the shutdown, which came at a critical time for loggers after the wildfire season and before the onset of November rains.

6 thoughts on “Judge issues order lifting federal suspension of logging sales”

      • Bob, I don’t know if this is what Jerry was thinking, but when I read this, a phrase from Sharon et al’s Oregonian op-ed jumped into my mind: “While the judicial system would not be available to address agency failures, the political system, through Congress and the administration, would do so.”

        I do agree about the “proven ineffective” part though 🙂

        Reply
  1. Not necessarily pointless. The debt ceiling is up for only a couple of months until after the end of this calendar year, then the blowtorching starts again. Further, the CR is not really a budget. At some point there is going to be another shutdown, simply because the budget path is prima facie unsustainable. A trillion dollars a year deficit under sequestration is ridiculous — a porked up “real budget?”
    So, AFRC has plowed the ground. If another shutdown happens, they’ll be in court within minutes with precisely the same boilerplate.

    Reply

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