OPINION/COMMENTARY

Banning the Better Alternative

Nearly 65,000 snowmobiles enter Yellowstone per year while approximately 1.8 million motor vehicles—including vans, buses, trucks, RV’s, SUV’s, automobiles, and motorcycles—enter the parks every year during the non-winter months.[1]

Additionally, 75 percent of winter visitors utilize snowmobiles in Yellowstone, as the park is inaccessible during the winter without these vehicles. “Gateway” communities near the parks offer lodging and amenities, and welcome a vibrant tourist industry. Winter conditions in these areas require snowmobiles for basic transportation. West Yellowstone, Montana, for example, calls itself “the snowmobile capital of the world.” Many residents in these communities earn their livelihoods through snowmobile-related tourism.

There is some question as to whether snowmobiles are the big polluters their opponents allege. In 2003, the National Park Service (NPS) revised the rules to limit rather than ban the use of snowmobiles and to require the vehicles achieve a 70 percent reduction in carbon monoxide emissions and a 90 percent reduction in hydrocarbon emissions by 2005. In a separate but related move, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a rule in 2002 limiting emissions for all snowmobiles. While litigation continues in federal courts over snowmobile access to these parks, the NPS issued temporary winter use plans and new rules are being considered for the 2004-2005 winter season. As Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA) explains, “The new snowmobiles have about the same technology as the cars and emit about the same amount of hydrocarbons as the cars.”[2]....