The San
Francisco Chronicle
www.sfgate.com
Reid walks fine line pleasing miners, environmental
groups
SCOTT SONNER
Thursday, February 1, 2001
Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's loyalty to the mining industry
continues to confound his friends in the environmental community,
who are angry over his vote to confirm Interior Secretary
Gale Norton.
"Norton's nomination is a giant reward to the oil,
gas and mining industries that funded President Bush's campaign,''
said Jessica Hodge of the Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra
Club.
"We are extremely disappointed that Senators Reid
and (John) Ensign voted for someone whose views on the environment
are far out of step with the vast majority of people from
Nevada,'' she said.
They were especially disappointed in Reid.
"He's in a leadership role and he could have really
made a strong statement about Nevada's environment and the
beautiful state we live in,'' she said Thursday from Las
Vegas.
Ensign, a former Republican congressman elected to the
Senate in November, has never courted national environmental
groups.
His career rating from the League of Conservation Voters
is 31 percent, and his $74,450 in campaign contributions
from the mining industry last year ranked second among all
U.S. Senate candidates.
Reid, on the other hand, is an ally of conservation groups
on most issues.
The exception for the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate
is mining, especially mining in Nevada -- the third-leading
gold producer in the world behind South Africa and Australia.
"He's a very fine senator when it comes to wilderness
protection and most public lands issues,'' said Tom Myers
of Great Basin Mine Watch, a non-profit environmental group
based in Reno.
"But on mining, I just feel his positions are shortsighted,''
Myers said.
Reid, also the ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment
and Public Works Committee, scored 86 percent on the League
of Conservation Voters' scorecard last year.
He voted with environmentalists on such issues as nuclear
waste, arctic drilling, livestock grazing, national monuments
and timber sale subsidies.
The lone exception? Hardrock mining.
Over his career, Reid's rating with the league has ranged
from a low of 63 percent in 1998 to 93 percent in 1995.
His break from environmentalists on mining issues has
made him popular among industry leaders.
"Senator Reid has done a very good job of addressing
the needs of a wide array of constituents in Nevada,'' said
Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Industry.
"I don't necessarily see that it is mutually exclusive
situation where he either supports the industry or supports
the -- quote -- environmentalists,'' he said.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., another key industry ally, said
he doesn't know how to gauge Reid's popularity among environmentalists.
"They never approach me,'' said Gibbons, who scored
14 percent on the conservation scorecard last year.
"I do know Senator Reid is a very bright man who
is able to demonstrate to both sides of this issue that
he's a person who cares about the environment as well as
the industry,'' Gibbons said.
Which raises the issue of Reid's support of Norton, the
former Colorado attorney general and protege of one of the
environmental community's most despised characters -- former
Interior Secretary James Watt.
Watt hired her to work at the conservative Mountain States
Legal Foundation. Critics say her zeal to protect private
property rights comes at the expense of fish and wildlife.
But Gibbons said Nevada's interests are "very much
parallel to her philosophy, whether it is mining, ranching
or farming interests.
"I know there are a lot of extremists out there who
don't like her. But unfortunately for them, I think she
has a lot of support,'' Gibbons said.
"I think she is going to bring an intelligent degree
of common sense to the leadership of the Department of Interior.
For too long we have had an individual there who wanted
to kick the public off the public land.''
Reid's endorsement -- one of 25 Democrats to back her
-- was much less ringing. He said he hopes Norton and President
Bush do not view confirmation of as a "mandate for
the rollback of environmental protections enacted over the
past eight years.''
Reid said a new law phasing out snowmobiles in Yellowstone
National Park "will provide a litmus test for whether
President Bush will promote conservation or oversee the
decline and degradation of our treasured national park system
and our public lands generally.''
Aides said Reid's decision to vote to confirm her came
down largely to mining.
"She may be good for Nevada on the BLM mining regulations
that give new discretion to the interior secretary to veto
a new mining site,'' said David Cherry, Reid's press secretary.
Among other things, the Bureau of Land Management's ''3809''
mining regulations expand some bonding requirements to apply
to smaller mines. But the reform that bothers the industry
most is the section that gives the interior secretary authority
to deny a permit for a new mine if it could damage the environment.
The regulations went into effect Jan. 20, the day President
Clinton left office.
"We think that is no small coincidence,'' said John
Grasser, vice president of the National Mining Association
in Washington., which has filed a lawsuit to block implementation.
"We think in at least one instance, Secretary (Bruce)
Babbitt went beyond what the law intended,'' he said.
"We're hoping the new secretary will come in and
begin to examine the actions of the previous administration
to make sure they were written within the confines of existing
law,'' he said.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., is among those who support
the new mining regulations and oppose Norton.
"I am disturbed that not one respected conservation
group in our nation has announced its support for Ms. Norton,''
Durbin said this week.
"Her strongest supporters hail from the mining, drilling,
logging, and grazing industries -- industries better known
for exploiting public land than for protecting it,'' he
said.
Myers worries that Durbin and other Democratic critics
of the mining industry could change their tune if they find
themselves having to please Reid in his leadership role.
"Reid is in a position now to strongly influence
the junior senators on this issue,'' Myers said, "And
now we don't have a veto we can count on in the White House.''
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