|
|
  |
|||
|
||||
Sizing Up Environmental LeadersWhat shade of green is our new Interior Secretary?President Bush recently replaced Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who resigned, with Idaho governor Dirk Kempthorne. What was Norton’s environmental legacy and what can we expect from her successor? —Kiernan Romano, Ronkonkoma, N.Y. The U.S. Department of Interior is one of 20 individuals and departments — including the vice-president and the departments of Defense, Justice, Education, Labor, the recently created Department of Homeland Security and others — that make up the president’s Cabinet. The Interior Department is charged with protecting and conserving, in the interest of the American public, our land, water, energy and mineral resources, as well as the nation’s fish and wildlife. Gale Norton, the first woman to ever lead the Interior Department, was a rousing success in the influential position she held for six years, according to the White House. Upon accepting her resignation in March, President Bush praised her for an initiative to protect communities from catastrophic wildfires. He also told reporters that she helped lead efforts to restore offshore energy production after Hurricane Katrina, lauding her as “a strong advocate for the wise use and protection of our nation’s natural resources.” But Norton’s legacy does not look so rosy to most eco-advocates. For one, she spearheaded (as-yet unsuccessful) efforts to open up Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, an action green leaders say would yield little oil in relation to the large profits that already bloated oil companies would gain. She also opened more federal land across the American West to oil drilling and mining than any other Interior Secretary before her. Critics also say that her wildfire protection efforts, through the thinning of forested areas, were a veiled effort to hand over otherwise untouchable forestlands to the logging industry. The New York Times called Norton “a key player in the Bush administration’s efforts to exploit natural resources on federal lands.” The League of Conservation Voters, in issuing a statement about her resignation, said, “Gale Norton’s decision to leave the Interior Department provides the opportunity for President Bush to appoint an individual who believes that … America truly does have an addiction to oil and who will create policies to help wean America off that addiction. The new Secretary needs to understand our national treasures are to be protected, not exploited for profit … that America’s public lands are not intended to be sold to the highest bidder.” But to those happy to see Norton go, Dirk Kempthorne is cold comfort. “As Idaho governor, Kempthorne led the charge to strip protection from 60 million acres of America’s last wild forests, and he’s consistently fought against protection for wildlife like grizzly bears and salmon in his home state,” said Todd True of the non-profit Earthjustice. Chuck Clusen, senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called Kempthorne “Gale Norton in pants,” saying, “President Bush could not have made a more anti-environmental choice for his new secretary of the Interior. Dirk Kempthorne surely will continue this administration’s ‘drill first, ask questions later’ approach to public land stewardship.” Kempthorne racked up a dismal environmental record during his six years in the Senate in the 1990s, scoring a 0 on League of Conservation Voters’s legislative scorecards in every year except one in which he scored 6 out of 100. For more information: • Earthjustice: www.earthjustice.org. • U.S. Dept. of Interior: www.doi.gov. Email your environmental questions to [email protected] |
||||
|
|
||||
|
© COPYRIGHT 2004 by New Bay Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. |
