Sierra Club Opposes Norton and Ashcroft

SIERRA CLUB MOUNTS VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN TO DEFEAT NORTON AND

ASHCROFT



Bush Makes Wrong Choices for Interior Secretary and Attorney

General



Washington -- The Sierra Club today launched campaigns to oppose

President-elect George W. Bush's nominations of Gale Norton as

the Secretary of the Interior and John Ashcroft as Attorney

General.  Both nominees have dismal environmental records.



"Gale Norton would be a natural disaster as Interior Secretary. 

Norton is the oil, mining and timber industry's choice.  She

favors increasing the commercial and environmentally destructive

development of our national parks, forests and wild lands," said

Carl Pope, Executive Director for the Sierra Club.



Norton formerly worked at the extremist Mountain States Legal

Foundation, where she was a protege of James Watt.  Watt was

later ousted as Secretary of Interior for his radical anti-lands

agenda.  During the Reagan administration, Norton served as

associate solicitor at the Interior Department, authoring legal

opinions to support drilling the pristine Arctic National

Wildlife Refuge, an issue that will be hotly debated at the

beginning of the 107th Congress.  Norton has also labeled

government protections of endangered species an example of

excessive regulation.



Norton is also the 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

transparent attempt to fool voters who care about environmental

protection."  Contributors to CREA include several energy

companies and associations representing the mining, logging,

chemical and coal industries.



Norton is a strong advocate of Colorado's "self-audit" law, which

gives businesses immunity from legal penalties if they report and

correct their violations of environmental standards.  The U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has objected to these

self-audit laws.



Bush's nomination of John Ashcroft, former senator from Missouri,

is equally disappointing.  "In light of his poor environmental

record and his open hostility to most environmental laws, how can

we expect Senator Ashcroft, as Attorney General, to enforce

environmental laws?" said Pope.



While in the Senate, Ashcroft voted against additional funding

for environmental programs including the Clean Water Action Plan

and toxic waste cleanups at Superfund sites.  He also voted in

favor of a bill to roll back clean water protections, to prevent

the EPA from enforcing arsenic standards for drinking water, and

to allow mining companies to dump cyanide and other mining waste

on large areas of public lands next to mining sites.



Ashcroft also opposes campaign finance reform.  He voted against

the McCain-Feingold bill for a complete ban on soft money

contributions to political parties.  This bill would have closed

a loophole that allows mining, timber and other interests to gain

influence by contributing huge unregulated sums of money to

political parties.



To block their appointments, the Sierra Club will be mobilizing

its more than 630,000 members, working in coalition with other

environmental and progressive groups and using radio, television

and newspaper advertisements to educate the public about the

bleak environmental records of Norton and Ashcroft.



     

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