Interior Nominee Finds First Day of Hearings a Cake-Walk

For weeks, environmentalists had portrayed her as the political equivalent of a saber-toothed tiger bent on shredding the federal laws and regulations that protect America’s natural treasures.

But when Interior Secretary-designate Gale A. Norton finally appeared Thursday at her confirmation hearing, she presented a face so moderate and mild-mannered that her potential opponents on the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee were all but disarmed.

“I am both a conservative and a conservationist. I see no conflict there,” she told the panel. “In fact, I am a compassionate conservative and a passionate conservationist.”

The Sierra Club has criticized her as “an anti-environmental extremist” and a lifelong “lobbyist for polluters.”

But Norton--despite a record that includes challenging the Endangered Species Act and the sanctity of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as well as repeated efforts to limit federal dominion over natural resources in the West--rejected any suggestion that she would not guard the nation’s wild creatures and unspoiled places.

“I feel very comfortable enforcing the laws as written,” she told one Democratic senator.

Later she said: “I support the Endangered Species Act and the preservation of endangered species. . . . The goal of preserving land is an admirable goal.”

In essence, Norton adopted the nonconfrontational strategy of President-elect George W. Bush’s other controversial Cabinet nominee, Atty. Gen.-designate John Ashcroft. She promised to enforce the law, whatever her personal reservations might be, and to consult with Congress and the public on any changes in policy.

That approach, coupled with solid support from Republicans in the evenly divided Senate, seemed likely to win confirmation for Norton. At day’s end, not a single Democrat on the committee had come out against her, and Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.), a committee member and strong Norton backer, predicted that she would get at least 75 votes for confirmation on the Senate floor.

As the opening of her hearing illustrated, the presumption in favor of giving presidents the Cabinet secretaries they want is strong. It normally takes something close to “smoking gun” evidence of wrongdoing to defeat a nominee.

But assuming Norton takes office, she likely will face more contentious times. Her commitment to balancing environmental concerns with other priorities, such as developing new energy supplies, can be expected to provoke fierce opposition from environmental groups when the issue is the Arctic wildlife refuge.

Similarly, her conviction that extra attention should be paid to the views of local people most directly affected by federal environmental decisions are fighting words when the question becomes local economic development versus preservation of wilderness.

Still, in the opening round at least, Norton was notably successful in turning aside potentially explosive questions.

How did she feel about public access to protected lands, including the controversial issue of snowmobiles in national parks, Thomas asked.

“I’ve been out cross-country skiing on a quiet snowy day in the forest and had snowmobiles go by, and I know people can be disturbed by that,” she said. “And I know wildlife can be disturbed by that.”

Such competing interests “can be reconciled,” she said, through consultation and compromise.

Would she spell out where she disagreed with her onetime mentor, former Interior Secretary James G. Watt, asked Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). Watt, whose attacks on environmentalists were so strident that he eventually had to leave the Ronald Reagan administration, led the Mountain States Legal Foundation, where Norton began her career as a conservative activist.

She could not really answer that question, Norton said, because “I’ve only spoken to him once in 10 years.”

Moreover, she said, in the 20 years since she worked for Watt, her experience as attorney general of Colorado and in other assignments had broadened her perspective. While she opposed excessive federal regulation when she worked with Watt, Norton suggested, she has subsequently been aggressive in pursuit of businesspeople “who thumb their noses at environmental laws.”

“The reality of who I am is different from the characterization of who Jim Watt is,” she said.

Indeed, a cornerstone of Norton’s defense of her record was that it has been grossly distorted by her opponents, both in public statements and in an advertising campaign launched on the eve of her confirmation hearings.

Referring to such criticism, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) asked Norton: “Does it hurt your feelings?”

“It doesn’t hurt my feelings that much because it doesn’t sound like me,” she replied.

“It doesn’t sound like you to me either,” Campbell said.

In supporting Norton’s nomination, Campbell said that she “listens to common sense while searching for common ground.” He called her critics members of “the extreme environmental community” and said that some had engaged in “character assassination.”

Norton, who worked for a time at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute after leaving Watt’s foundation, served in both the Agriculture and Interior departments during the Reagan administration before returning to her native Colorado to practice law and win two terms as state attorney general.

At the Interior Department, Norton helped write a report that supported opening the Arctic wildlife refuge to oil and gas exploration.

Bush advocates such exploration. At Thursday’s hearing, Norton said that, if it were approved by Congress, she would insist that it be done in ways that protect the environment.

Norton’s confirmation hearings continue today.

In written testimony submitted to the committee, Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder said that her record shows “a consistent pattern of efforts to undermine and roll back the very environmental laws and protections she will be sworn to uphold.”

But on Thursday, Democrats on the committee seemed more concerned with appearing fair than with going to the mat with Norton over her conservative views.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), for instance, said that he expects unwavering enforcement of environmental laws from the next Interior secretary. But he added that “as a Westerner,” he shares Norton’s view that “one size does not fit all” situations when it comes to conservation policy.

Wyden said he is keeping an “open mind” on his vote.