WASHINGTON — What's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander, an environmental group has found.

Campaign to Protect America's Lands wanted to demonstrate the commotion 11 snowmobiles make by parking them outside the nation's Capitol. But the National Park Service denied the group a permit to do so inside Simon Bolivar Park, which is located across the main entrance to the U.S. Department of Interior.

The group claims it was denied a permit because snowmobiles aren't considered an acceptable use in D.C.

The group is confounded by the decision because the Bush administration has proposed allowing a pack of 11 snowmobiles to run in Yellowstone National Park.

"It is mind-boggling to me that this permit was rejected," said Peter Altman, the director of Campaign to Protect America's Lands. "If 11 stationary snowmobiles with their engines running are inappropriate for an urban environment with cars, trucks, buses, planes and trains, what on earth makes NPS think that 720 machines a day make any sense in a pristine natural place like Yellowstone?

"It's an absurd double standard under which already polluted Washington, D.C., park space is somehow considered to be more deserving of protection from the ravages of snowmobiles than the pristine environs of America's first national park."

The group is urging those opposed to snowmobiles in Yellowstone to speak out during the comment period that ends Oct. 7. The public can comment at www.greateryellowstone.org.

Some find fault with the National Park Service's 200-page study because it didn't point out the harmful impacts snowmobiles cause to the health and environment.

"This was not full and fair disclosure of the implications of this proposal," said Bill Wade, a former superintendent of Shenandoah National Park and a spokesman for the Coalition of Concerned NPS Retirees. "What was missing was the fact that the National Park Service spelled out very clearly in its study that, under the Bush administration's proposal to increase snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton, visitors may want ear plugs to avoid hearing damage and that they may not be completely safe breathing the park's air when it is polluted by snowmobiles." And the group just wanted a chance to demonstrate that. "I would like to think that there is some bizarre bureaucratic rationale that explains this decision," Altman said. "Otherwise, you are left with only one possible conclusion: NPS knows full well just how devastating this demonstration for the news media and Congress would have been to the prospects for their crusade to flood Yellowstone with snowmobiles."

Phone calls to the park service were not returned Wednesday.

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