Controversy on the environment as Bush appoints his government.
(posted 9-1-01)

One of our Washington insiders writes:
George's W's appointment of Governor Whitman of New Jersey to head the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has been fairly well received by both environmentalists and the business community.

But his nomination of Gale Norton from Colorado to head the Interior Department has brought raucous howls of derision from the environmental community who consider her a clone of Jim Watt. You might remember the controversial Mr Watt, Ronald Reagan's interior secretary who tried to turn environmental policy upside down by, among other things, rolling back legislation. After making a series of outrageously incorrect political statements even his most staunch supporters were so embarrassed they urged him to quit.

Gale at least deserves a chance to argue her position. Let the environmentalists' opposition be based on real decisions or policy differences, not on her past associations.

Bush will push domestic energy production over conservation/efficiency/renewables. He concedes that these responses are important, but they provide little hope of keeping the US supplied with good cheap energy in the short term. Environmentalists fear that this will mean easier access to government-owned wilderness regions, such as Alaska. Gale Norton will be in control here, and that scares the greens even more.

What he does on the climate issue is going to be fascinating. There are no clues yet. He could do well if he brought executives together from those companies that have been making real progress in cutting CO2 emissions and profiting from the energy savings.

There's a good story to be told about this but it has gotten very little attention. The notion would be to promote this kind of win-win response to climate pressures as a stop-gap while the new Administration struggles to figure out what it proposes to say and do about climate. Watch this space.