Babbitt Urges End to Swamp Mine Plan

Coming to the alligator-infested swamp inhabited by the cartoon possum, Pogo, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said he has met the enemy and it is DuPont. Babbitt flew over the site of a proposed DuPont strip mine, disembarking at a helicopter landing pad and declared the plan “not compatible” with the neighboring ecosystem. Babbitt called on the chemical giant to make a “grand public gesture by simply withdrawing” its plan to extract titanium oxide from the edge of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The secretary has no direct authority to stop the DuPont plan, his appearance was in part public relations.