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Dirk Kempthorne Nomination Raises Serious Concerns Washington, DC: The nomination of Governor Dirk Kempthorne for Interior Secretary raises serious concerns about the Bush administration's already deplorable stand on protection of public land. This nomination represents a continuation of the same anti-environmental polices that we have seen for the last five years. "President Bush nominated someone who has consistently opposed protecting public health and public lands," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. "American families deserve an Interior Secretary who actually values our natural heritage. America deserves someone who will promote safe energy policies that protect sensitive lands and wildlife habitat, instead of giving over our public lands to developers and the oil and gas companies." Governor Kempthorne has a history of: * Supporting drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge * Opposing the protection of 60 million acres of wild forests * Working to weaken the Endangered Species Act and Safe Drinking Water Act As Senator and Governor, Kempthorne has proved hostile to a variety of environmental issues. Kempthorne earned a one percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters. Notably, as Senator Kempthorne co-sponsored a bill to take polluters off the hook for millions of tons of lead, zinc and other toxic metals into the Coeur D'Alene River Basin-instead leaving taxpayers with the clean-up bill. From suggesting the sale of public lands to the highest bidder to privatizing their parks, forests, monuments, the Bush Administration has demonstrated a pattern of siding with corporate interests over the protection of America's natural heritage. Given the administration's and Kempthorne's own track record on the environment, unfortunately we have little hope that as Interior Secretary he would provide the leadership necessary to protect our national parks, wildlife and other special places. ### |
