There are a couple of little problems with that article. The term "forecast" is misused; they mean short-term prediction. And, I don't know about USGS in particular, but there is serious funded research on whether short term prediction is possible (at SCEC for example). The SCEC-lead effort as far as I know is without success. I'd think not every serious seismologist is saying short-term prediction is impossible. Some would probably say that it would be extremely difficult or unreliable. They might say there has been no reliable success except maybe a few 1-time examples.
Chris