Letter: Grand Canyon air tour industry over-regulated

Wednesday, April 4, 2001 | 9:18 a.m.

President Bush has been in office more than two months. Just last week he claimed that he will not permit environmental actions which would harm small business, the economy or American workers. We believed the president during the campaign when he said that help was on the way. It's time for him to step in and help protect Las Vegas' Grand Canyon air tour industry.

Recent actions by the federal government to eliminate the last of the "scenic" air tour routes flown by Southern Nevada air tour companies will have precisely the impact the president has vowed to reject. When combined with earlier federal rules imposing caps, curfews and other restrictions on air tour flight, the economic impact on these small companies will easily exceed $2 million annually. What small business can survive in such a burdensome regulatory environment?

Seeing the Grand Canyon by air is arguably the most environmentally sensitive way to view this spectacular sight. Air tourists don't trample the wilderness, disturb historic ruins, remove artifacts, start campfires or leave garbage along the trails.

This latest offensive by the federal government is nothing more than more regulatory garbage left over from the Clinton years. The president should kill this and all other recent anti-air tour regulatory actions which were designed with only one purpose in mind: to destroy Southern Nevada's air tour industry.

STEVE BASSETTPresident, United States Air Tour Association, Washington, D.C.