-Caveat Lector- >From Gallon Environment Letter: ===== BUSH NOMINATES A "WISE USE" ADVOCATE TO BE SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR The Ralph Nader-Assisted, President-Elect, George W. Bush, has begun to show his brown colours. One of the most important posts in the United States for protecting the environment, Secretary of Interior, has been proposed for a "wise use" advocate out of Colorado, Gale Norton. The Wise Use movement was created in the 1970's to counteract conservation efforts to protect wildlands and wildlife on national lands. Wise Use is an anti-environmental movement designed to rally ranchers, oilmen, loggers, and miners, in an effort to open up government lands for their own special exploitations. Gale Norton served as the Attorney General for the state of Colorado for eight years, and was a prot�g� of James Watt, who was President Ronald Reagan's highly controversial anti-environment Secretary of Interior. James Watt was the enemy of the environment and tried in numerous ways to place as much of the U.S. government land (controlled by the Dept of Interior) under human exploitation. One of the oldest Cabinet level positions in the U.S. government, the Interior Secretary is saddled with myriad responsibilities, such as managing millions of acres of federal lands and enforcing laws that protect endangered species. As the nation's principal conservation agency, the Interior Department governs a host of federal agencies, including the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Minerals Management Service, the Office of Surface Mining, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey. A full third of the nation's land is owned by the federal government. Gale Norton was Colorado's Attorney General from 1991 to 1999. During her tenure, she litigated state and federal constitutional issues, defended the state of Colorado against federal mandates, and chaired the environmental committee of the National Association of Attorneys General. In 1979, Norton went to work for the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a Denver based legal center whose leaders describe it as being "dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own property, limited government and the free enterprise system." However, the Sierra Club described the Mountain States Legal Foundation, "as a right wing, anti-environmental organization that is primarily set up to thwart environmental laws." Gale Norton was hired at foundation by James Watt, the foundation's first president. The foundation currently has a lawsuit pending against President Clinton for his use of the federal Antiquities Act used to create a host of national monuments throughout the American West before he left the presidency. President Clinton announcing the new Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in January 2000. The Wise Use movement fully expects that George W. Bush will nullify many of the Clinton national monument declarations made in the dying days of his Presidency, and that Bush will use Gale Norton to do it. A law firm that Gale Norton once worked for has filed suit in an attempt to block the designation of a host of national monuments throughout the West. Norton also once chaired an organization known as the Coalition for Republican Environmental Advocates (CREA), which even Republican environmentalists have denounced as an environmental fraud. Anne Callison, a Colorado resident and a board member of the group Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), called CREA "the original greenscam." "From my perspective, CREA was a front for the "wise use" group," Callison said. The group held a fundraising event that year in Washington, where the keynote address was delivered by then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. More information about Norton and Bush's other Cabinet nominees is available on the incoming administration's website at http://www.bushcheneytransition.com. Source, "Bush Taps Watt Protege for Interior", by Brian Hansen, Environment News Service (ENS), Washington, D.C., December 29, 2000 (ENS). See the full story at http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-29-15.html ************************************************************************ RON ARNOLD AND THE WISE USE MOVEMENT Wise Use was advocated by Ron Arnold in the 1970's when he began to rally industry to sound and look like conservationists. It was the move towards "greenwash". Sound green and name new environmental sounding organizations that, in fact, protect the right to pollute and extract natural resources. "Wise Use", for example, is designed to sound like the wise use and conservation of natural resources. There are two basic tenets that serve as the driving force and uniting theme for the Wise Use movement. The first Wise Use tenet is that, "All constraints on the use of private property should be removed, including limits set for health, safety, and environmental protection." At the heart of the issue is the "takings" clause of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which states "...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Property-rights advocates argue that regulations that restrict an owner's use of his or her land are a taking, and hence, the property owner must be duly compensated. The second Wise Use tenet is that, "Access to public land should be unrestricted for logging, mining, drilling, motorized recreation, and all commercial enterprise." This misconstrued philosophy is the basis of the Wise Use movement's public-lands policy. Their public relations campaign touts its objectives as multiple use of public lands. In reality, however, their objectives limit public access and do not promote economic stability. For example, the mining industry would close off public lands to recreational users, and the timber industry would limit access on public lands to hunters and hikers. Much of their argument is based on the Henry Yake, President of the Blue Ribbon Coalition statement issued in the Times Herald, July 15, 1990, that, "Wilderness, when not exploited, has no economic value, no timbering, no oil and gas production, no mining, no livestock grazing, no motorized recreation." Twenty-five objectives of the Wise Use movement were spelled out at the Multiple Use Strategy Conference in Las Vegas in August 1988, which was sponsored by the Center for Defense of Free Enterprise of Bellevue, Washington, a core group in the Wise Use movement. The agenda sets specific goals which support the basic objective of removing all restrictions on the use of private property and public lands. It is this common aim that unites the seemingly disparate groups that make up the Wise Use movement. For a complete review and analysis of the Wise Use movement. You can view the 25 objectives and more about the Wise Use movement at the website http://www.ewg.org/pub/home/clear/on_wise/afte.html . ************************************************************************* ALT CULTURE DESCRIBES THE WISE USE MOVEMENT AltCulture described,"Wise Use as an anti-environmental movement which takes its name but not its cause from an early 20th century conservationist, Gifford Pinchot, who, himself, worked to limit private development of federal forests in the West. The modern Wise Use coalition dates from a loose confederation of far-right groups in the 1970s opposed to federal management of public lands (e.g. limits on mining and lumbering or enforcement of the Endangered Species Act). The movement has gained legitimacy with the Republican sweep of Congress in 1994 (and financial support from mining interests and the National Rifle Association NRA) even as its militia-linked fringe has grown more violent. Arguing that federal lands properly belong to localities, some members have taken up arms against trespassers like the U.S. Forest Service (its Carson City, Nevada, office was bombed in 1994, as was a nearby Bureau of Land Management building in Reno). In the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, identifying logos were removed from many Washington State Department of Ecology vehicles for fear of anti-government attacks." Source, AltCulture website http://www.altculture.com/aentries/w/wisexusex.html ************************************************************************ __________ EcoNews Service - Always online for Exopolitics & a Universe Ecology. EcoNews http://www.ecologynews.com/ Prague http://mujweb.cz/www/ecologynews/ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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