“How did such overwhelming opposition to snowmobiles result in such a snowmobile-friendly decision?” That is the question Washington, D.C., reporter Katharine Q. Seelye addresses on the Bush Administration’s handling of proposed rules governing snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. She reports that Interior Department counted some 360,000 comments on the issue, “the most ever on any question related to the national parks. The verdict? Ban the machines,” by a four-to-one ratio – “just as the Clinton Administration had proposed.” The outcome? Quite different, Seelye reports, pointing to a proposal that would allow a 35 percent increase and inclusion also of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway:. On an average day, the numbers could increase from 840 to 1,100 per day of what Interior says will be “newer, cleaner, and quieter” snowmobiles. (A former Clinton Administration official’s take: Cleaner isn’t clean, quieter isn’t quiet.”) Seelye’s reporting includes helpful insights on the merits of such public comment periods, regardless of which Administration is in power at a given time and with an eye toward the biases introduced by so-called “AstroTurf” drummed-up grassroots campaigns. It includes reporting also on whether form-letter comments in effect should be discounted and whether and how regulatory decisionmaking should, or should not be, influenced by popular votes in the first place. She quotes another former Clinton Administration official as saying agencies generally “develop the plan you want, announce a public comment period, and then do what you want to do.”