The Dec. 6 feature article, “Taking the West
Forward,” grossly mischaracterizes the Bush administration’s
policies and programs.
The article states the
administration has “opened the region’s resources to
development” when in fact public lands, at the direction of
Congress, have been open for years. More typically, this
administration has restricted development in previously open
sensitive areas.
Your assertion that, “in her 2003
settlement with then-Utah Gov. Leavitt, Interior Secretary Norton,
in one fell swoop, stripped approximately 4.4 million acres of
citizen-proposed wilderness of protection” is a gross misstatement.
The fact is, the legal status of those lands was never changed by
any formal land-use plan decision or legislative action.
Furthermore, the term, “citizen-proposed wilderness” is a misnomer;
a more accurate term might be “advocacy-group proposed.”
Most of BLM’s land-use plans were written in the 1980s or
before, and called for oil and gas development over entire land-use
planning areas. As we revise these plans, we are closing some areas
to development altogether, and requiring strict stipulations on
developers in open areas. Our plan for New Mexico’s Otero
Mesa is an example. Previously, nearly 2 million acres were open
for leasing; our recent record of decision closes more than 130,000
acres to leasing altogether.
The assertion that this
administration has “dramatically reduced public involvement in
decision making” is untrue. A new Bush administration policy
specifically engages local governments and state agencies to be
full cooperators in our planning efforts. This is one of Interior
Secretary Gale Norton’s highest priorities.
Renewable energy development is also a high priority of the
Interior Department. We have issued more than 60 wind and 200
geothermal permits since 2001, compared to just nine and 20 in the
last four years of the previous administration, and we plan to do
more. We have also worked long and hard to smooth the permitting
process so that energy companies will have reasonable assurances
that their considerable investments in renewable energy development
will not get hung up in bureaucratic red tape. Some examples: We
are working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help inform
renewable energy developers up front of what will be required of
them to minimize impacts and protect migratory birds when siting
wind development projects. The Departments of Interior and Energy
recently conducted a thorough analysis of renewable energy
production potential on all public lands. I would hardly call that
a “half-hearted commitment.”
Others outside of government
have recognized Interior’s record of promoting renewable
energy. Renewable energy expert Scott Sklar commended the Interior
Department in his recent Renewable Energy Access article, “A Look
at Bush Administration Policies Regarding Renewable Energy.” Under
the heading “Good News,” he recognized Interior as a “strong
backer” of renewables, writing that “Interior Secretary Norton led
a very high profile program to remove barriers for renewable energy
on federal lands …”
Misrepresentations (such as the
ones appearing in High Country News) imply that
citizens must proceed despite this administration, rather than in
concert with it. I propose a different approach. Let’s work
together to forge what HCN calls a “collective
commitment to finding a way of living in the West that works.”
Rebecca W. Watson, Assistant Interior
Secretary for Land and Minerals
Washington, D.C.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline HCN has it wrong on Bush.
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