USA: Environmentalists, Labor and Civil Rights Groups Oppose Norton

WASHINGTON -- More than 20 non-governmental organizations -- environmental, civil rights, labor, conservative and liberal -- announced their campaign to defeat Gale Norton's nomination as Secretary of Interior at a news conference this morning.

Confirmation hearings for Norton, whose radical views include suggesting that industry has a ''right to pollute,'' will be held before the Senate Jan. 18 and 19.

The League of Conservation Voters Education Fund also released new polling data done by both Democratic and Republican polling firms that found ''a majority of Republicans and Democrats alike want stronger enforcement of environmental laws,'' said LCV President Deb Callahan.

''Bush has turned a blind eye to clear public sentiment that crosses party lines,'' she said. ''He has appointed someone who's going to carry the dirty water of polluting industries within the Interior Department.''

For example, the LCV polls found that:

• 71 percent of all voters said clean air, clean water and open space were primary factors in their voting decisions;

• 83 percent reject the notion that society must trade environmental protection for economic gain;

• 66 percent said the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) should be protected from oil drilling and designated a national monument. (25 percent said they supported or somewhat supported drilling.)

• Only 3 percent said environmental laws are too strict and should be relaxed, a view held by Norton. ''That's the margin of error in our poll,'' Callahan said.''You can't get much more out of step with the American people.''

Julian Bond, chairman of the board of the NAACP, said his group opposes Norton because of her controversial positions on the environment and civil rights.

''She exhibited a wanton insensitivity toward slavery and its descendants when she bemoaned the Confederacy's defeat as a loss of states' rights,'' he said. ''Just as surely as she won't be hugging trees, her record suggests she will not embrace efforts to end environmental racism.''

Martha Marks, president of REP America (Republicans for Environmental Protection), with more than 5,000 members in 48 states, said she was deeply troubled to have to oppose a Republican nominee.

''As Republicans who believe that conservation is fundamentally conservative, we are compelled to speak out against the nomination of Gale Norton,'' Marks said at the press conference. ''I think the Republican senators and representatives wish to goodness, just as we do, that they hadn't been put in this position.''

''We believe the Senate could do the president-elect no greater favor than to reject the nomination of Gale Norton,'' said Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope. ''We believe Gale Norton, if confirmed, will be trouble for the Bush Administration.''

Pope said the Sierra Club is launching a TV and radio ad campaign in nine states with key senators. The ads explain ''why we believe the nomination of Gale Norton for Interior Secretary has been one of the worst decisions of the Bush Administration.''

Bill Meadows, president of the Wilderness Society, said his organization had never received so many calls and emails from its members as it did the day after Norton said she supported opening ANWR to oil drilling.

''The American people do not want a Bush-Cheney-Norton oil cartel,'' he said.

Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, said this was the first time his group had ever opposed a presidential appointee ''we didn't even oppose James Watt's nomination. Clearly, this is a political payoff to Mr. Bush's extremist supporters in industry who have been yearning for decades to massively exploit the public lands,'' he said.

David Smith, public policy director of the AFL-CIO, said the 14-million member labor organization felt it was important to stand with the environmental community against Norton, who has questioned the constitutionality of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the minimum wage. The AFL-CIO board adopted a resolution Tuesday asking the Senate to reject Norton.

''At the end of the day, this is about whether the rights of polluters ought to stand before the rights of the American public,'' Smith said.

Doug Kendall, executive director of the public interest law firm Community Rights Counsel, said even among conservative scholars, Norton's views of the Constitution and limits on federal authority are ''far outside the mainstream.''

''We're not saying simply we think Gale Norton would be a poor secretary. It's much more than that,'' said Greg Wetstone of Natural Resources Defense Council. ''Gale Norton has devoted her life to undermining the mission of the department she's been nominated to run.''

Environmentalists point to Norton's views that the Endangered Species Act and the Surface Mining Act are unconstitutional; has a long record of opposition to federal lands and wildlife stewardship and instead favors logging, drilling, grazing and mining interests; does not support a strong role for federal enforcement of environmental laws; endorsed eliminating the Bureau of Land Management, selling off fish and wildlife refuges and transferring public lands to private parties; believes taxpayers should pay the private sector to comply with environmental laws.

Participating in the press conference were: Sierra Club, U.S. PIRG, Natural Resources Defense Council, Friends of the Earth, REP America, the Wilderness Society, Endangered Species Coalition, American Oceans Campaign, League of Conservation Voters, Defenders of Wildlife, AFL-CIO, NAACP, Physicians for Social Responsibility, National Environmental Trust, Community Rights Counsel, Alaska Wilderness League, Southern Utah Wilderness League, Greenpeace USA, Union of Concerned Scientists, Environmental Working Group and Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.

Some 220 local and regional environmental organizations, most of them members of the Endangered Species Coalition, have also announced their opposition to the Norton nomination.

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