U.S. Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada and Dianne Feinstein of California urged the Sierra Club not to delay implementation of a new plan to guide future development at Lake Tahoe before the environmental group sued over it earlier this week.

The two Democrats, in a Feb. 1 letter to the Sierra Club, warned that millions of dollars in federal funding and the very existence of the bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Agency could be jeopardized by delays in implementing the agency's new regional plan.

The Sierra Club and Friends of the West Shore filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, claiming the rules TRPA adopted in December will erode environmental protection of the lake.

The senators' letter was obtained by the Tahoe Daily Tribune.