-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Monday February 5 4:52 PM ET Rule to Ban Road Development in Forests Hits Snag By Christopher Doering WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration has delayed until May 12 a plan by former President Clinton (news - web sites) to ban road construction and timber harvesting on nearly 60 million acres of forest land, the government said on Monday. The new regulations are among several that were put on hold by President George W. Bush (news - web sites) immediately after he was inaugurated on January 20. The announcement of the decision appeared in Monday's Federal Register, the government's official log. The roadless rule along with other delayed regulations is undergoing a 60-day review by Bush administration officials. The ban, approved by Clinton two weeks before he left office, would restrict road construction and the removal of oil and lumber in 58.5 million acres (23.67 million hectares) of forest land, unless it was necessary for environmental reasons or to reduce the risk of wildfires. ``Currently, the department is reviewing a number of regulations in accordance of the guidelines set forth on January 20 with the temporary 60-day delay,'' said Kevin Herglotz, a spokesman for the U.S. Agriculture Department. ``No decisions have been made yet on'' the roadless rules plan, he said. The final roadless plan was issued by the Forest Service, which is part of the USDA, in January. The former Texas governor and other Republicans have lobbied to open land such as the Alaska's Tongass National Forest, which would be protected as part of the roadless rule. Still, it is unlikely Bush will have much success in overturning the roadless ban because it is already a rule of law. Regulations become law once they are printed in the Federal Register. Environmental groups say the road ban is needed to protect unspoiled forest and animal habitat from ``irreversible damage.'' Some groups are worried that Republican lawmakers such as Sen. Larry Craig (news - bio - voting record) of Ohio or Sen. Frank Murkowski (news - bio - voting record) of Alaska could find alternate ways to derail the roadless rule. Murkowski, who heads the Senate Energy Committee, predicted in January the roadless ban would be challenged in court or reviewed by Congress because of alleged violations committed during the rulemaking process, such as improper notice of public sessions. One option is through the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996. The act, which has never been used, allows for a regulation to be voted on by Congress if its impact on the economy exceeds $100 million per year. If both the House and Senate were to vote against the roadless act, the president could then kill the regulation, according to environmental groups. This is a move by ``the Bush administration and the timber industry's allies in Congress to give themselves time to develop a strategy on how they are going to stop wild forest protection,'' said Sean Cosgrove, a forest policy specialist with the Sierra Club (news - web sites). ``It would be foolish to attack (the plan) and take it apart. I don't think they want the fight,'' he said. The plan, first orchestrated by Forest Service in February 1999, received some 1.7 million letters and faxes from the public, the largest outpouring of comments on a federal environmental measure. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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