A top official in Yellowstone National Park says the snowmobile industry has failed to provide useful information about new technologies that would justify overturning a ban on snowmobiling in the park. The Clinton administration made the decision to impose the ban by 2004, but snowmobile manufacturers later convinced the Bush administration to reconsider the move, charging that it was founded on “bad science.” However, John Sacklin, chief of park planning in Yellowstone, says the industry hasn’t submitted any scientific studies showing that future snowmobiles would be much less noisy or emit far less pollution. The Park Service is slated to make a final decision about the ban next year.
