Environmental Groups Oppose Norton Nomination
GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: Friday a coalition of environmists kicked off a full-scale assault -- that's environmentalists -- on the Gale Norton nomination as interior secretary. The charge: that the former Colorado attorney general is to the right of the conservative mainstream; that her views are dangerous to the environment, civil rights and public health. Is the nomination is trouble? We have two very different views on that question. With me from the Friends of the Earth, Brent Blackwelder, he opposes the nomination; and Myron Ebell from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in favor of Gale Norton. Here's a quote from Friday from the Endangered Species Coalition: "Gale Norton is one of the scariest Cabinet nominees since James Watt." Do you agree with that, Mr. Blackwelder?</s>BRENT BLACKWELDER, PRESIDENT, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH: I absolutely do. Friends of the Earth thinks that her track record and her career shows that she associates with and works for groups whose agenda is to undermine environmental protection, to open up the public lands for mining, oil drilling, grazing and timber; and yet the secretary of interior is the chief steward of our national parks, our national wildlife refugees and nothing in her record suggests that she would be a good steward. She would be the ideal candidate if you wanted to open these up for exploitation.</s>RANDALL: Mr. Ebell, you say Norton is a superb choice.</s>MYRON EBELL, COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Yes, absolutely. I think the -- I'm not surprised that the environmental extremist groups are sore about this...</s>RANDALL: This is an extremist sitting next to you?</s>EBELL: Well he -- in my opinion many of the groups on the list opposing Gale Norton are extremist.</s>BLACKWELDER: Am I an extremist?</s>EBELL: Well, let me just say -- let me give you a quote from a former secretary of the interior: "We must" -- well, secretary of the interior -- "We must identify our enemies and drive them into oblivion." That isn't Jim Watt speaking, that's the current secretary, Bruce Babbitt; that's what he said when he was president of the League of Conservation Voters, one of the groups on this list.</s>RANDALL: Mr. Blackwelder, isn't a president entitled to have his choice in these Cabinet positions? I mean, George W. Bush says that she represents his views on the environment. He was elected.</s>BLACKWELDER: The Senate has the duty under the Constitution to ratify or not the nomination submitted. And they have to determine, is this person qualified? We believe that she is actually, in her record, opposed as unconstitutional the very laws, like the Surface Mining Act to control coal mining, the Endangered Species Act -- she's argued that those are unconstitutional. Why would someone like that want to get in this position unless they are not going to do their duty and implement these but, rather disregard them. That is the fundamental question.</s>RANDALL: Mr. Ebell, would you at least admit that Gale Norton has become a lightning rod?</s>EBELL: Well, I think that, with the failure of the Chavez nomination -- I think now there's blood in the water and the sharks are circling. But I think you have to understand that what Gale Norton's positions are -- the reasons she was chosen is because those are President-elect Bush's positions. One of the things that the environmental extremist groups are so upset about is increasing our access to energy, the environmental groups...</s>RANDALL: I want to be clear about something here: Is friends of the earth an extremist...</s>EBELL: Yes, I believe it is, and I used to be a member of it; I believe it is, yes. Now, the -- we have very high energy prices as a result of eight years of policies to reduce energy production and raise prices. Those are the kinds of policies that the environmental groups have supported, it's the -- President-elect Bush's campaign was based on restoring stewardship, not nonmanagement to our public lands, our federal lands, with huge areas in the West and in Alaska and to increase energy production by opening up some of the lands that have been closed off by the Clinton administration. Now, it seems to me that, if you want higher energy prices, we'll continue down the current path. If you want natural gas shortages, we'll continue down the current path...</s>RANDALL: Mr. Blackwelder?</s>BLACKWELDER: The whole purpose of the federal land protection is to say certain areas, like national parks and national wildlife refuges are not to be opened to commercial exploitation. The question is, are we going to have a secretary of interior that wants to open all monuments, national parks, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas to commercial exploitation? That is exactly Gale Norton's agenda because she supported the wise use movement through her backing with the Mountain States Legal Foundation.</s>RANDALL: We have a minute, take 30 seconds each. Will she be approved, and if so, what will the message be -- Mr. Ebell.</s>EBELL: Yes, Gale Norton will be approved as secretary of the interior. The message will be that we want to get rid of the failed policies of the Clinton-Gore administration that have led to massive fires in the West, millions and millions of acres burned up because of nonmanagement, the failure to be stewards and an improved energy situation.</s>RANDALL: Mr. Blackwelder, will she be approved, and if so, what's the message?</s>BLACKWELDER: The -- I predict a reasonably close vote; it's hard to defeat a president's nominee. But her record is so off of mainstream America's viewpoints -- Americans support clean air and clean water, they want to protect the national parks; they do not want to privatize these, turn them over to unlimited mining or grazing or commercial exploitation.</s>RANDALL: Would you both agree this will be a very big fight, Mr. Ebell?</s>EBELL: It will be a very big fight...</s>RANDALL: Mr. Blackwelder?</s>BLACKWELDER: We're pulling out all the stops on this nomination.</s>RANDALL: Thank you very much. Interesting days ahead; thank you for being with us.