-Caveat Lector- Alert: Oppose Gale Norton and the Wise Use Agenda Posted by ecott on Friday January 12, @11:35AM More than 200 national, state and local groups, along with labor and civil rights leaders, have united to oppose the nomination of Colorado attorney Gale Norton for Secretary of the Interior (www.SayNoToNorton.org). Oppose Gale Norton and the Wise Use Agenda Subject: Gale Norton and the Wise Use Agenda Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 14:00:25 -0500 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] A special report of CLEAR, the anti-environmentalism watchdog. ** Please distribute ** ** Please distribute ** ** Please distribute ** More than 200 national, state and local groups, along with labor and civil rights leaders, have united to oppose the nomination of Colorado attorney Gale Norton for Secretary of the Interior (www.SayNoToNorton.org). There are many reasons that Gale Norton should not serve in Interior. Most of these reasons are related to Norton's connections with and work on behalf of the anti-environmentalism movement. CLEAR has been conducting research in Norton's wise use affiliations. Citizens, activists, and members of the US Senate need to ask: "Will Gale Norton pursue the "Wise Use Agenda" if she is confirmed as Secretary of Interior?" Visit -- www.presidentbushwatch.org Gale Norton's Associations with Anti-Environmental and Wise Use Groups Gale Norton has a long history of involvement with anti-environmental groups and the Wise Use movement. Below are descriptions of some of the groups in question, and details of her involvement with them. CLEAR is currently looking into other groups with which Norton has worked, so this list should not be considered exhaustive. Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates Gale Norton was a founder and the National Chair of CREA, an "environmental" group with a highly questionable green pedigree. Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), a group of Republicans with demonstrably good environmental records, has described CREA as "a transparent attempt to fool voters who care about environmental protection." REP's newsletter went on to say that "CREA shows no signs of being either grassroots or pro-environment. The word greenscam comes first to mind.Their enthusiasm for taxpayer- soaking corporate subsidies betrays a lack of sincerity in their alleged support for the free market." CREA positioned itself as a grassroots organization, but all evidence pointed to the contrary. CREA was, in fact, a political action committee. This was not mentioned on the CREA web site (www.gop4environment.org, now out of commission). The group has been inactive since 1998. When the Atlanta Journal and Constitution asked Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), whom REP named "Environmental Legislator of the Year" in 1998, if he was a member of CREA, he replied, "Oh gosh, no. I belong to a respectable environmental organization." In fact, no Republicans with good environmental voting records are involved with CREA. Instead, the group's "Honorary Board Members" included Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Richard Pombo (R-CA), Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-ID), Sen. Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID), Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID). These six members of Congress had a 1997 combined average League of Conservation Voters score of only 5 percent. Also an honorary board member was Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist, who was at the time a registered lobbyist for British Petroleum. According to the Christian Science Monitor, CREA's steering committee included "registered lobbyists for the petroleum, mining, auto-making, firearms and alcoholic beverage industries." CREA was funded by Coors Brewing Co., American Forest and Paper Association, the Chemical Manufacturers Association, Amoco, ARCO, Ford Motors, and similar corporations, all of which fund other anti-environmental organizations. Defenders of Property Rights Norton sits on the Board of Advisors of Defenders of Property Rights (DPR), a Washington-based legal foundation dedicated entirely to property rights matters, which was founded in 1991 by former Mountain States Legal Foundation staffers Roger and Nancie Marzulla. DPR is clearly excited about the prospect of Norton's confirmationsoon after her nomination, the group optimistically changed Norton's affiliation on its web site to "Secretary of the Interior." DPR's primary goal has been to promote "takings" laws, which threaten to make environmental laws and regulations prohibitively expensive by requiring payments to private landowners and others who might be affected by regulations. The group litigates takings-related cases, and also lobbies for the passage of such laws at both the state and the national level. Defenders of Property Rights staffers reportedly worked, behind the scene, on the 1995 Omnibus Property Rights Bill, sponsored by Larry Craig. Unlike most D.C.-based conservative policy organizations, DPR is also active in the more state-based Wise Use movement. The organization is a regular participant in the Alliance for America's Fly-In for Freedom. Defenders has supported Chuck "Rent-a-Riot" Cushman's private-property voter scorecard, and is involved in several other anti-environmental coalition groups, including one with the goal of dismantling the Endangered Species Act. Since its inception, DPR has been a bridge between the activities of the sagebrush Wise Users and the Washington political set. For example, at the group's 1998 national conference, panelists included distinguished members of the conservative elite. The keynote speaker was then-Senator John Ashcroft (R-MO), who has been nominated as Attorney General by George W. Bush. Oliver North spoke on "International Issues and Property Rights," and former vice-president Dan Quayle presented DPR's "Ronald Reagan Public Service Award" to former Virginia Governor George Allen. Other speakers included Congressmen David McIntosh (R-IN) and Charles Canady (R-FL) and Bob Cole, Vice President of Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation. Hoover Institution Norton was identified as a National Fellow of the Hoover Institution in 1994. It is not clear how long before or after she held the position. The conservative think-tank, which is affiliated with Stanford University, is best known for its advocacy of the "star wars" missile defense system during the Reagan Administration, and for its anti-Communist zeal in the late 1950's. It is also involved in the anti-environmental movement, and in recent years, has been particularly aggressive in promoting the opinion that global warming does not represent an environmental problem. One example of Hoover's anti-environmental activities was a conference on "the greening of American foreign policy," which was held at the institution in October 1998. According to Hoover, the symposium was needed because "American armed forces have become increasingly distracted by inappropriate environmental issues, including global warming and sustainable development," and "U.S. tax dollars have gone to environmental groups waging spurious economic campaigns against American companies." The conference was organized by, among others, Hoover fellow Terry Anderson, who is also executive director of the free market Political Economy Research Center in Bozeman, MT, where Gale Norton is also a fellow. Independence Institute Norton was a fellow of the Independence Institute until 1990, and now sits on its board of directors. Publications by the free-market Colorado think-tank have called smart growth "an elitist assault on the American Dream." Not surprisingly, the Institute supports polluter privilegeor "environmental self-audit"laws, which Norton has promoted, and opposes centralized planning of any kind, even for natural resources such as water. Mountain States Legal Foundation Norton worked in a staff position at the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) between 1979 and 1983. Movement godfather, Ron Arnold, once called MSLF the "litigating arm of the Wise Use movement." MSLF was founded in 1976 and originally bankrolled by Joseph Coors, who was once called "one of the country's leading anti-environmentalists" by Reader's Digest. James Watt served as founding president before he became Reagan's controversial Secretary of the Interior. Anne Gorsuch Burford, Reagan's equally controversial Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, also worked at MSLF. Active in "Wise Use" circles from the beginning, MSLF was a sponsor of the first Wise Use leadership conference in Reno, NV in 1998 and has participated in many other Wise Use meetings over the years. MSLF started the careers of some of the most anti-environmental attorneys in the country, including Karen Budd-Falen, who largely thought up the county supremacy argument, and Roger and Nancie Marzulla, founders of Defenders of Property Rights (where Gale Norton serves as an advisorsee above). The bulk of MSLF's activities have been focussed on public land litigation and on "takings" issues. In recent years, MSLF has attempted to block wildlife management plans, defended the American Farm Bureau Federation against the Department of Interior over wolf re-introduction, and defended oil and gas companies that violated EPA pollution regulations. The group also opposed President Clinton's national monument designations, represented Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-ID) in a suit against Clinton's American Heritage Rivers Initiative, backed a suit claiming the ESA violates the Commerce Clause, and unsuccessfully challenged a voluntary climbing ban on Devil's Tower designed to protect Native American religious rites. (CLEAR is conducting additional research on MSLF and its cases with which Norton was involved, and will release that information soon.) Political Economy Research Center Norton is currently a fellow at the Political Economy Research Center (PERC), which is based in Bozeman, MT. PERC bills itself as a "free market environmental think tank," which means, in practice, that it opposes most environmental regulations in favor of "market solutions." PERC has recommended weakening the Endangered Species Act and promotes "takings" legislation, among other anti-regulatory schemes. PERC has received funding from Amoco, ARCO, the Chemical Manufacturers Association, Conoco, Eli Lilly and Co., Pfizer, and Coors. It is also supported by a long list of conservative foundations, including the JM Foundation, the Olin Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Scaife-run Carthage Foundation, and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. PERC is listed as a "networking participant" in the Wise Use movement's umbrella organization, the Alliance for America. Terry Anderson of PERC was a member of George W. Bush's presidential campaign environmental advisory staff, as was Gale Norton The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition Norton was an Advisor to the The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), which was launched in 1993. Initially, TASSC's principal backer was Philip Morris, and the group presented an industry-oriented view of science-based regulations. Among its first targets were health risks from secondhand smoke (which it questioned) and other tort issues. Over time, the industry-funded group dismissed most major government environmental programs as based on "junk science." Led by Steven Milloy, a lobbyist whose primary client was Monsanto, TASSC was little more than a corporate front group. In the five years of its existence, TASSC was run by a bare-bones staff out of the Washington, DC, offices of the public relations firm APCO and Associates. Though initially conceived as a pro-tobacco public relations vehicle, the "sound science" coalition was supported by dozens of corporations, including Exxon, Procter and Gamble, Dow, and 3M. TASSC's goal was to raise doubt in public forums about the scientific legitimacy of environmental protection. Their standard practice was issue calls for "sound science," and to decry alleged alliances between environmentalists and biased journalists. TASSC criticized studies ranging from the quality of drinking water to pesticides in baby food, claiming that the reports were based on unscientific findings, and were merely scare tactics used by interest groups to drum up financial support. TASSC also considered global warming a farce, and opposed stricter air quality standards. In the spring of 1998, the New York Times revealed that TASSC was part of a corporate plan to pump millions of dollars into a campaign to cast doubt on global warming. TASSC faded into oblivion after September 1998, soon after the story appeared. Washington Legal Foundation Norton is currently on the Advisory Board of the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF). WLF is yet another pro-business, anti-regulatory legal foundation. WLF works more on business cases than those involving environmental issues, but is still a proponent of "takings" laws and other anti-regulatory schemes that favor industry profits over environmental protection. Wise Use Leaders consider Gale Norton sympathetic to their cause "She's been a friend to everyone (in wise-use groups) for a long, long time." Ron Arnold, Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise (USA Today, January 2, 2001, parentheses in original article) "Gale Norton cares about private property, access to federal lands and multiple use of those lands for the benefit of all Americans," Chuck Cushman, American Land Rights Association (Sacramento Bee, January 7, 2001) "The 'wise use' movement - industry groups and rural Americans, mostly in the West - sees a new Republican administration as presenting their best chance in eight years to open up public lands to more logging, ranching, and mining, while providing greater protections for private property." Christian Science Monitor, January 8, 2001 Background on the Wise Use Movement's 25 Point Agenda The "wise use" movement held its first national gathering in Reno, Nevada, in August 1988. The conference was organized by Ron Arnold and the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise and was attended by almost 300 individuals and organizations. The aim of the event was to develop a strategy for promoting the unregulated use of the nation's natural resources, including public lands. Conferees contributed suggestions that were forged into a list of the twenty-five top goals of the "wise use" movement and published in the book The Wise Use Agenda. The goals include opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil development, passing a global warming prevention bill which would allow logging of "oxygen-using" trees in established forests, property rights protection, and weakening the Endangered Species Act. The Wise Use 25 Point Agenda Which elements of the Wise Use Agenda does Gale Norton Support? The Wise Use Agenda, published after the 1988 wise use leadership conference delineates the following twenty-five goals of the movement: 1 Wise Use Public Education Project Initiate a public education project to demonstrate how Wise Use of the national forests and federal lands can reduce the federal deficit. 2 Development of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Open ANWR for oil exploration and extraction. 3 Inholders Protection Act Give broader property rights to inholders (persons who own land within the borders or tangent to federal or state lands). 4 Global Warming Protection Act Increase young stands of "oxygen producing" trees by removing "oxygen-using" old growth timber in National Forests. 5 Tongass National Forest Timber Harvest Area Increase harvesting of timber in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. 6 National Mining System Open all public lands, including wilderness areas and national parks, to mining and energy production. 7 Beneficial Use Water Rights Act Assert states' sovereign rights in matters pertaining to water distribution and regulation. 8 Forest Reserves Commemoration Commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Forest Reserves by calling attention to the commodity use of forests and the homestead settlement of these areas in the early years of the Service. 9 Rural Community Stability Act Increase harvesting of trees in national forests to promote "rural, timber-dependent community stability." 10 National Timber Harvest System Create a national timber harvesting system that allows for greater harvesting of timber on public lands. 11 National Parks Reform Act Reorganize the National Park Service. This includes the implementation of Mission 2010, a 20-year construction program that would maximize concession stands and accommodations in national parks, remove entry limits and bring in private firms experienced in people moving, such as Walt Disney, to manage the parks. 12 Pre-Patent Protection of Pest Controls Expand the window of time that a patent protects companies and individuals that develop new pest-control products by excluding the time spent testing the product. 13 National Rangeland Grazing System Open all federal lands for grazing. 14 Compassionate Wilderness Policy Open all wilderness areas to motorized wheelchair access. 15 National Industrial Policy Act Support the enactment of an act requiring all Federal actions -- legislative and regulatory -- to include an economic impact statement. 16 Truth in Regulation Act Require greater specificity in all costs associated with compliance with environmental regulations. 17 Property Rights Protection Allow property owners to recover easements on property taken for railroad construction once the railroads have been abandoned. 18 Endangered Species Act Amendments Amend and weaken the ESA to exclude "non-adaptive" and "relic species in decline before the appearance of man," such as the California Condor, and requiring cost-benefit analysis. 19 Obstructionism Liability Require parties that challenge any development or economic action in court to post a bond equivalent to the economic benefits of the action (plus cost overruns for delay), and pay damages to the developer in the event the challenge is unsuccessful. 20 Private Rights in Federal Lands Act Strengthen the claims to private rights on federal lands for mining, grazing, harvesting timber, etc. 21 Global Resources Wise Use Act Calls for the adoption of a pro-industry consideration in natural resource-use decisions and for free trade measures. 22 Perfect the Wilderness Act Change the National Wilderness Preservation System to allow for commercial uses. Reorganize areas so that some are designated for partial development while others are allowed more extensive development. 23 Standing to Sue in Defense of Industry Allow Wise Use groups standing to sue on behalf of industries that are threatened or harmed by environmentalists. 24 National Recreation Trails Trust Act Use monies from the federal gasoline tax to create trails for off-road motorized vehicles. 25 End the "Let It Burn" Policy Discontinue the Forest Service's policy of allowing some naturally occurring fires to burn, and introduce an active prevention system. **Corporations and Organizations that supported the 1988 Reno Wise Use Leadership Conference (partial listing) ** American Land Rights Association, National Inholders Association, Associated Logging Contractors of Idaho BlueRibbon Coalition California Cattlemen's Association California Chamber of Commerce California Farm Bureau California Women In Timber Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise Citizens Equal Rights Alliance; Montana Chapter Citizens for Multiple Use Columbia Gorge United Committee to Preserve Property Rights Competitive Enterprise Institute Consumer Alert; California office Council of Forest Industries Du Pont Company; Agricultural Products Dept Elko County Farm Bureau Exxon Company, U.S.A. Georgia Pacific Corp Idaho Cattle Association Louisiana Pacific Corporation Motorcycle Industry Council Mountain States Legal Foundation Multiple Use Association National Association of Mining Districts National Rifle Association North West Timber Association Northwest ATV Association Northwest Forestry Association Northwest Legal Foundation Oregon Farm Bureau Pacific Lumber Company Washington Contract Loggers Association Washington County Commission Western Forest Industries Association Willamette Forestry Council Yakima Valley Dust Dodgers Motorcycle Club Research provided by CLEAR. Contact CLEAR: Daniel Barry, [EMAIL PROTECTED], 202-291-7515 Emily Headen, [EMAIL PROTECTED], 503-236-8788 www.presidentbushwatch.org ** Subscribe to CLEAR ** To subscribe to CLEAR_View, a read only list, send an email message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message, type "subscribe CLEAR_View" (no period). 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