Forwarded by Jane Clark at [log in to unmask]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 5, 2001

CONTACT:
Wendy Balazik, 202-675-2383

                   SIERRA CLUB MOUNTS VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN
                       TO DEFEAT NORTON AND ASHCROFT
   Bush Makes Wrong Choices for Interior Secretary and Attorney General

Washington -- The Sierra Club today launched campaigns to oppose
President-elect George W. Bush's nominations of Gale Norton as the
Secretary of the Interior and John Ashcroft as Attorney General.  Both
nominees have dismal environmental records.

"Gale Norton would be a natural disaster as Interior Secretary.  Norton is
the oil, mining and timber industry's choice.  She favors increasing the
commercial and environmentally destructive development of our national
parks, forests and wild lands," said Carl Pope, Executive Director for the
Sierra Club.

Norton formerly worked at the extremist Mountain States Legal Foundation,
where she was a protege of James Watt.  Watt was later ousted as Secretary
of Interior for his radical anti-lands agenda.  During the Reagan
administration, Norton served as associate solicitor at the Interior
Department, authoring legal opinions to support drilling the pristine
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an issue that will be hotly debated at the
beginning of the 107th Congress.  Norton has also labeled government
protections of endangered species an example of excessive regulation.

Norton is also the founder and serves on the advisory committee of the
Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates (CREA), which is considered
by the Republicans for Environmental Protection (a legitimate GOP
environmental group) to be "a transparent attempt to fool voters who care
about environmental protection."  Contributors to CREA include several
energy companies and associations representing the mining, logging,
chemical and coal industries.

Norton is a strong advocate of Colorado's "self-audit" law, which gives
businesses immunity from legal penalties if they report and correct their
violations of environmental standards.  The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has objected to these self-audit laws.

Bush's nomination of John Ashcroft, former senator from Missouri, is
equally disappointing.  "In light of his poor environmental record and his
open hostility to most environmental laws, how can we expect Senator
Ashcroft, as Attorney General, to enforce environmental laws?" said Pope.

While in the Senate, Ashcroft voted against additional funding for
environmental programs including the Clean Water Action Plan and toxic
waste cleanups at Superfund sites.  He also voted in favor of a bill to
roll back clean water protections, to prevent the EPA from enforcing
arsenic standards for drinking water, and to allow mining companies to dump
cyanide and other mining waste on large areas of public lands next to
mining sites.

Ashcroft also opposes campaign finance reform.  He voted against the
McCain-Feingold bill for a complete ban on soft money contributions to
political parties.  This bill would have closed a loophole that allows
mining, timber and other interests to gain influence by contributing huge
unregulated sums of money to political parties.

To block their appointments, the Sierra Club will be mobilizing its more
than 630,000 members, working in coalition with other environmental and
progressive groups and using radio, television and newspaper advertisements
to educate the public about the bleak environmental records of Norton and
Ashcroft.

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