Features

Environmentalists worry as Norton proposes increased business access 

DENVER – Gale Norton remembers growing up in Colorado, hiking with her dog, watching elk in a grove of aspen trees and contemplating eternity gazing at jagged mountain peaks. 

When she looks at those resources now, President-elect Bush’s Interior Secretary nominee says she also sees an opportunity to make better use of the two-thirds of the nation’s lands in federal hands, and that includes business access. 

Environmentalists concede she knows her stuff and they worry about her priorities. While serving as Colorado’s first female attorney general, Norton made it clear in 1998 she favored a change in federal law that would allow polluters to avoid legal trouble if they turned themselves in and cleaned up the mess. 

“Companies are more likely to find out if they have environmental problems if there’s some hope regulators will work with them,” she said. 

She also went up against the federal government, opposing the U.S. Forest Service in its attempt to take over private and state water rights for bypass flows. 

During her eight years as attorney general, she gained a reputation for being tough as nails on crime, promoting changes to shorten death penalty appeals. 

Born in Wichita, Kan., the 46-year-old lawyer cut her teeth on environmental issues, going to work for James Watt at a Denver legal foundation before Watt went on to become President Reagan’s Interior secretary. 

In 1984, she went to Washington, where she worked as assistant to the deputy secretary in the Agriculture Department, and in 1985, she became assistant solicitor for conservation and wildlife at the Interior Department, where she worked to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. That became a key promise from Bush while running for president, and he refused to back away from it. 

In 1990, Norton beat Colorado Attorney General Duane Woodard and won re-election in 1994. 

A failed bid for the U.S. Senate in 1996 taught her a lesson about politics. She kept her day job while campaigning and went on to finish her term as attorney general. 

During the campaign, Norton’s pro-abortion views became an issue between her and Wayne Allard, who won the election. 

She also claimed that she could “bring the Reagan Democrats and independent voters home for a Republican victory,” but fell short. She said the “Reagan Revolution” was hobbled after the GOP lost the Senate in the 1986 elections. 

Norton said the loss of a sister to leukemia “taught me that we can never count on a second chance. There may never be another time to do what is important.” 

While serving as an adviser on growth issues to former Gov. Roy Romer, Norton urged the state to be careful about trying to direct growth, one of the major debates raging now over land-use policies. 

“I don’t think that the state or any government guesses particularly well in the long run. I am very reluctant to see state government get involved in directing where and how growth will take place,” Norton said in 1995. 

Environmentalists say Norton was not very aggressive on environmental issues and too willing to rely on local control and voluntary compliance. With disputes over air quality, oil drilling and other issues on the horizon, many of them are worried. 

“This is going to be a challenge for her, especially since she favors free market and local control solutions,” said Susan LeFever, spokeswoman for the Colorado chapter of the Sierra Club.