Gale Norton is an anti-environmental extremist whose record as a lobbyist for polluters, an attorney for loggers and miners, and a protege of James Watt makes her unfit to be Secretary of the Interior. Gale Norton favor allowing polluters to regulate themselves; as an attorney she sued the EPA to overturn clean-air standards; and, in the Reagan administration, she worked to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Due to her views and her record, the Sierra Club strongly opposes the confirmation of Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior.

Protecting Public Lands

Norton has long advocated opening America's wildlands to the oil, gas, mining and logging industries. During the Reagan administration, Norton served as associate solicitor at the Interior Department, where she helped support efforts to drill the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an issue that will be hotly debated at the beginning of the 107th Congress.

Before working for the Reagan administration, Norton was hired by James Watt at the arch-conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation, which often represents loggers, miners, ranchers and water developers in fights against environmental safeguards. Watt was later ousted as President Reagan's Interior Secretary for his extremist agenda.

As reported by the 1/7/2001 issue of the Sacramento Bee, an environmental lawyer who worked with Norton said: "I think that she [Norton] adheres to the same philosophies as James Watt, but she is infinitely more diplomatic in her presentations..."

Ms. Norton has consistently opposed Congressional designation of new wilderness areas in Colorado if designation protect the water flowing through the wilderness. She would have Congress acknowledge the unique rock formations, rich and diverse vegetation, and healthy wildlife, then allow developers to drain the water, the very substance that makes all those features possible.

She opposed Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993, and its earlier versions, because it included provisions that recognized the need for water in wilderness, even though that legal recognition did nothing to diminish any existing or future water right.

Defending the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Norton opposes protecting the last pristine portion of Alaska's North Slope, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Instead Norton wants to open the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas drilling, which will destroy this fragile habitat -- home to herds of caribou, polar bears and musk oxen -- and threaten the native Gwich'in people who depend on these animals to live.

As reported in the Washington Post (Dec. 29, 2000), Norton, at the press conference introducing her nomination, said: "President-elect Bush took a position... that we should explore opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas exploration... I cannot comment in terms of my own actions on that, but I do support the president in the positions that he has taken during his campaign."

Protecting Endangered Species

Norton is opposed to federal environmental protections and is in favor, of what she calls, "market-oriented, property rights-based, locally controlled solutions." (as reported by abcNEWS.com).

She has objected to the Endangered Species Act, advocating that landowners be paid by taxpayers to comply with the law. She advocates such payments because they would have a "chilling effect" on wildlife protections.

National Environmental Policy Act

Norton has also objected to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires the government review the environmental harm of proposed federal projects to public lands and endangered species.

Testifying on NEPA before Congress on March 18, 1998, Norton indicated her desire to revamp our nation's most over-arching environmental protection law.

Protecting Clean Air and Water

Norton opposes enforcing anti-pollution laws and instead supports a "self-audit" system that has been criticized by the EPA because it lets polluters off the hook with secret settlements that allow the polluter to avoid punishment.

In 1993, Attorney General Norton failed to enforce the Clean Air Act against the Hayden coal-fired power plant in northern Colorado. This facility's pollution was so severe that it was measurably increasing acid rain damage in Rocky Mountain National Park and Colorado wilderness areas. Her failure to enforce the law came despite her statements that she prefer delegating enforcement authority to the states, as this power was. Ultimately, a private lawsuit, a federal court action and the U.S. EPA got the act enforced, the private corporation operating the plant acknowledged their violations and settled with EPA, and the pollution was reduced. (Denver Post 1/7/01)

Similarly, Ms. Norton failed to enforce federal or state law against operators of the Summitville Mine after a tailings pond there collapsed, sending high-acid pollution into natural streams, killing all life in them for thirty miles. (New York Times, 1/6/01)

She did not take action against Louisiana-Pacific, operators of a wood products plant near Olathe, Colorado, despite evidence from a successful citizens' lawsuit showed that the plant was intentionally dumping illegal levels of air pollution at night. Federal prosecutors had to step in, confirming 18 separate illegal dumping violations and exacting over $30 million in fines. (Denver Post 1/7/01)

Ms. Norton also took no action against a petroleum company that spilled oil into Sand Creek near Denver. A suit by the Sierra Club finally brought a $1 million penalty.

Norton is also a registered lobbyist for NL Industries of Houston. NL Industries, formerly known as the National Lead Company, has been sued for children's exposure to lead paint.

Fighting Global Warming

Norton opposes efforts to curb global warming and has publicly questioned whether global warming is a threat.

In an editorial printed in the 6/29/1997 issue of The Gazetter (Colorado), Norton said: "Ironically, there is little consensus over whether global warming is occurring. Only 17 percent of the Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Society membership believes greenhouse gas emissions caused the warming earlier this century."

Gale Norton's Biography

Gail Norton is currently a lawyer with the firm of Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, and Strickland, where she specializes in business regulation and the environment. She will not disclosed what clients she has worked for.

Norton sits on the board of the Independence Institute, a free-market think tank in Golden, CO.

Norton is also a founder, and serves on the advisory committee, of the Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates (CREA), which is considered by the Republicans for Environmental Protection (a legitimate GOP environmental group) to be a greenscam: "a transparent attempt to fool voters who care about environmental protection." CREA focuses on free market and local solutions to environmental problems and counts Helen Chenoweth and Senator Larry Craig as supporters. CREA actually gave an environmental award to Newt Gingrich. Contributors to CREA include the American Forest Paper Association, the Chemical Manufacturers Association, ARCO and Amoco.

During the Reagan presidency, Norton served as Associate Solicitor at the Interior Department where she authored and signed legal opinions supporting drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Norton has also pointed to the government's handling of endangered species cases as an example of excessive regulation.

A former Libertarian, Norton vigorously supports private property rights in takings cases. For example, she signed onto a letter addressed to Senator Hatch supporting Congress' Constitutional authority to enact a law that strengthens personal property rights under the takings Provision of the Fifth Amendment. The bill, S. 1028, would have allowed citizens to bypass state court and proceed directly to federal court with taking cases.

Norton was advocated Colorado's "self-audit" law, which allows companies to conduct voluntary audits to determine whether they are complying with environmental requirements. The law gives businesses immunity from litigation and fines if they report the violations and correct them. The federal EPA has objected to these self-audit laws. She wrote testimony presented before the Senate EPW Committee in support of self-audit as an antidote to the "command and control" approach of federal environmental regulations.

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