Interior Department Betrays Trust

Interior Secretary Gale Norton is retiring just as the Jack Abramoff scandal is implicating officials of her department. She was one of President Bush's most controversial appointments, having previously lobbied for oil, gas, mining and logging interests. As secretary of the Interior Department she has colluded with industry to advance her “Wise Use” doctrine, which eliminates all environment regulations that restrict economic development.She revamped the Park Service so that its mission is not preservation, but commercially sponsored recreation. The Bureau of Land Management has been ordered to allow logging of old-growth forests. In New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming, oil and gas companies are developing massive new fields with virtually no review. Is it any wonder that the Department of the Interior is now known as the “big box store” of the oil, gas, mining, timber and coal industries? President Bush's new nominee, Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, is a man equally well known for his animosity to protecting public lands. Why are this president's appointments so often antagonistic to the departments they are placed in charge of? The mission of the Department of the Interior is to protect public land, not give it away. And if our congressional representatives won't speak out to protect our interests and demand accountability, then they should be replaced by others who will.

KAREN PADMORE

Cape May Court House

Letter published in Press of Atlantic City, April 1, 2006