A cadre of policy wonks from some ultra-conservative think tanks decended on Capitol Hill Jan. 11 to tell sympathetic Republicans how they’d strip the budgets of the Department of Interior and the Forest Service. Representatives of the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy and Citizens Against Government Waste urged legislators to: * […]
Politics
Posted inJanuary 23, 1995: What a long strange trip it's been
Feds targeted by louder thunder from below
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Met Johnson worried that no one would show up for the two-day Western Summit of conservative state legislators, county commissioners and public-land users he organized here in January. Johnson, the leader of the so-called “Cowboy Caucus” in the Utah House of Representatives, feared the “steam might have gone out of […]
Posted inNovember 28, 1994: Beauty eludes the beast
Environmental records of ranking Republican members ofcommittees addressing natural resource issues
Note: this is a sidebar to the news story titled “Election ’94 postmortem“ Environmental records of ranking Republican members of committees addressing natural resource issues. Compiled by League of Conservation Voters, based on bill sponsorship and recorded votes in the 103rd Congress. Sen. John Chafee, Committee on Environment and Public Works – 79 percent Sen. […]
Posted inNovember 28, 1994: Beauty eludes the beast
Election ’94 postmortem
Conservationists’ pre-election nightmares became real Nov. 8. A landslide gave Republicans a majority of the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years, and turned already conservative state legislatures in the West further to the right. “It’s not just the reversal, it’s the size of the reversal,” says Bruce […]
Posted inNovember 28, 1994: Beauty eludes the beast
Goodbye, New West; hello lords of yesterday: Dispatches from the field
Wyoming geared up for war In Wyoming, “It wasn’t the year to be seen as a thoughtful problem-solver,” says Sierra Club Northern Plains representative Larry Mehlhaff. “It was the year to have a bumper-sticker campaign.” Wyoming’s new senator, Republican Craig Thomas, lambasted Democratic Gov. Mike Sullivan during the campaign by associating him with President Clinton […]
Posted inNovember 14, 1994: Land grant universities
Blow, whistleblowers, blow
Continuing to emphasize openness at the Department of Energy, Secretary Hazel O’Leary proposed reforms Oct. 17 to protect whistleblowers. Employees who raise concerns about fraud or safety, for example, would be protected against retaliation and litigation costs related to lawsuits brought against them by contractors, and the agency would form a special department for employee […]
Posted inOctober 31, 1994: Water for the taking
Environmentalists mostly skunked by Congress
California Democrat Dianne Feinstein paced the chamber of the U.S. Senate, Saturday morning, Oct. 8, just minutes before the adjournment of the 103rd Congress. The number 59 glowed on the electronic scoreboard. Feinstein and a huddle of grim-faced Democrats knew they needed one more vote to end a month-long Republican filibuster frenzy that had prevented […]
Posted inOctober 31, 1994: Water for the taking
Wise-use power is overblown; the real threat is apathy
The 103rd Congress, which just wrapped up most of its business, was the worst environmental Congress since the first Earth Day 25 years ago. The conventional wisdom in the mainstream press is that this poor record comes from the diminished clout of the environmental movement and the rise of the wise-use movement. But is the […]
Posted inOctober 17, 1994: As elections near, green hopes wilt
As elections near, green hopes wilt
Two years ago environmentalists were flying high following the election of President Bill Clinton, Al Gore and a cadre of Democrats in Congress. Surely this was the time to reform grazing and mining on public lands, designate millions of acres of new wilderness, toughen laws protecting water and wildlife. But the brief window of opportunity […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Inspector commits “career suicide’
Steve Jones’ 20-year career in federal safety inspection may be over. He was fired Sept. 14 by the contractor that is building and operating a chemical weapons incinerator at Utah’s Tooele Army Depot. Jones says he’s spent a frustrating three months trying to track down safety violations there. Now Jones is commiting what he calls […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Mike Synar loses
Oklahoma Rep. Mike Synar, D, one of Congress’ leading advocates for federal grazing reform, lost a Democratic primary runoff Sept. 20 to a little-known retired school principal. Virgil Cooper defeated the eight-term congressman 52 percent to 48 percent. Ranchers cheered the defeat of the outspoken critic of “welfare cowboys’ using public lands in the West, […]
Posted inAugust 22, 1994: Whose fault? A Utah canyon turns deadly
Babbitt thrives in crossfire of industry, environmentalists
CASPER, Wyo. – After Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt testified before a U.S. Senate field hearing here on July 15, Sen. Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo., invited him to attend a lunchtime barbecue and rally lambasting Interior’s grazing policy. Wallop added jokingly, “We’ve reserved a spit for you.” Perhaps to Wallop’s surprise, the Clinton administration’s top public-lands manager […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Santa Fe Mayor Debbie Jaramillo, fresh from the populist coup in March that swept her and a progressive city council into office, still has that I-just-won-the-lottery euphoria about her this morning. She’s waving hello to diners at a downtown restaurant, shaking hands (“We did it, didn’t we!”) and getting needled a bit by husband Mike. […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Baca is still fighting
Although he lost his bid for the gubernatorial nomination in New Mexico, Democrat Jim Baca is still fighting for environmental causes. At a meeting of the Nevada Outdoor Recreation Association in Reno, Baca said it is residents of the urban areas who are thinking ahead and bringing a stronger momentum for change. He also said […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Jim Thrash: A solid man
Jim Thrash, 44, who died July 6 in the Glenwood Springs, Colo., fire, was a McCall, Idaho, conservationist. That is how I came to know him. Jim was an outfitter in the heart of Idaho – Salmon River country. For several years he chaired the wilderness committee of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association. He […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Home, home on the range … where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
John Trochman calls himself a “Christian Patriot” and defender of the American Constitution. The soft-spoken man with a Robert E. Lee beard is also a field general in the “Militia Of Montana,” a paramilitary survivalist organization formed to fight what it perceives as oppression by the federal government. The number one threat to freedom, Trochman […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Utah’s wildlife division is gutshot
The phone to Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources can sometimes ring three dozen times before it’s picked up. Some of the offices are now empty, and the biologists who worked in them are gone. “We’re all walking around here paranoid, wondering who’s next,” mutters a biologist well into his second decade on the job. “Everybody’s […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Endless pressure, endlessly applied
Never have a president and secretary of the Interior so disappointed conservationists as have Bill Clinton and Bruce Babbitt. The firing of Jim Baca as Bureau of Land Management director is simply the icing on a multi-layered cake of betrayal. We shouldn’t be surprised, though. Between nomination and taking office as secretary of the Interior, […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Environmentalists strike out in Idaho
BOISE, Idaho – Environmentalists took a thrashing in the 1994 Idaho legislative session, which ended on April Fool’s Day. With conservative Republicans running the House and Senate, the legislature passed laws that enhanced industry at the expense of the environment. “When it suited them, the powers that be shut us out,” said Mexlinda Harm, lobbyist […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
Wallop bows out
Sen. Malcolm Wallop, Wyoming’s senior Republican senator, has decided to bow out of politics after serving for 18 years in the U.S. Senate. A major player in federal water and energy policy, Wallop had considered a run for Wyoming governor, but decided instead that his “political Energizer bunny” had run out. He will return to […]