Gale, the Grizzly & the Gorilla

by Tom Bell

My old friend Mike Frome, author of a number of books on the environment, wrote in his Christmas letter, "Be of good cheer. It's only for four years." But it promises to be a long four years, particularly for the conservation community and the environment.

The Department of the Interior under Gale Norton will be a lot less friendly place that it was under Bruce Babbitt. The beneficiaries of her friendliness have been the industries whose damaging activities sparked the laws, rules and regulations we depend upon to protect our environment-and ourselves. As one commentator observed, "Norton's career has been one of seeking to undermine the effectiveness of the agencies that Bush appointed her to oversee."

Norton is the founder of a group called the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA). She recently hosted a big CREA party in Washington sponsored by industry trade associations, including the National Coal Council, the Chemical Manufacturers Association, the National Mining Association and the Chlorine Chemical Council.

Martha Marks, founder of Republicans for Environmental Protection, accuses CREA of being nothing more than a front to gussy up the poor records of some GOP office holders. "It's the classic green scam," she said in a recent article in The Washington Post National Weekly Edition, "meaning to slap a green label on someone or something that is actually working against conservation and environmental protections."

As an avowed states' rights champion, the article continued, Secretary Norton will "have significant power to decide how assertive the department should be in requiring states to comply with federal environmental laws and rules governing mining, drilling, and grazing leases." We know what that will mean to Wyoming. It will be a throwback to the old days of the "Bureau of Livestock and Mining."

Industry and its political supporters like to trot out shop-worn tales about federal regulations holding up or prohibiting minerals development. The business pages of national newspapers frequently parrot the industry line. For example, a recent article in USA Today reported that "environmental restrictions prohibited exploration in some natural gas-rich areas, including much of the Rocky Mountains." In fact, in Wyoming, only 700,000 of the 18 million acres of BLM lands were closed to leasing as of last December. So much for industry propaganda.

With the current natural-gas boom in Wyoming, you can bet that every available acre that might have a whiff of gas has been leased. How will our landscape look and how much of Wyoming's wildlife will be left when Gale Norton's reign, aided and abetted by our governor and his one-voice policy, has ended?

There is some encouragement. In the same issue of The Washington Post National Weekly Edition cited above, an article titled "The GOP's Sleeping Grizzly" predicted that "If the Bush administration provokes environmentalists, it could get mauled." The article continued, "If the past is any guide, the environment could be the next issue to rise up and bite the new administration. It's the sleeping grizzly of Republican politics." Referring to Norton, the article notes that "President Bush has hurled a rock right between the beast's eyes."

Gallup polls show that about 70% of Americans support environmental protection, even if it curbs economic growth. Many Republicans say they disagree with President Bush on environmental matters.

Unfortunately, both political parties lack direction when it comes to energy. Republicans generally favor production and consumption over conservation. Conservatives sneeringly dismiss alternative energy sources. However, the current energy crisis in California and other western states may once again revive serious interest in energy alternatives.

Global warming may be the Bush administration's 900-pound gorilla. It is real, it is serious and it affects Wyoming. A recent U.S. News & World Report cover story noted the conclusions of a distinguished scientific panel that global warming is caused "by the burning of oil, coal, and other fuels that release carbon dioxide."

I would wager that in Mr. Bush's four-year tenure, he will have to go to the mat with not only the grizzly but the gorilla as well.