James G. Watt

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James G. Watt

43rd United States Secretary of the Interior
In office January 23, 1981 – November 8, 1983
Under President	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Cecil D. Andrus
Succeeded by	William P. Clark, Jr.

Born	January 31, 1938 (age 69) Lusk, Wyoming
Political party	Republican
Religion	Pentecostal

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James Gaius Watt (born January 31, 1938 in Lusk, Wyoming) served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1983.

Watt attended the University of Wyoming, earning a bachelor's degree in 1960 and a law degree in 1962. Watt's first political job was as an aide to Republican United States Senator Milward L. Simpson of Wyoming, whom he met through Simpson's son, Alan Simpson.

In 1966, Watt became the secretary to the natural resources committee and environmental pollution advisory panel of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In 1969, Watt was appointed the deputy assistant secretary of water and power development in the Department of the Interior. In 1975, Watt was appointed the vice-chairman of the Federal Power Commission. In 1976, Watt founded the Mountain States Legal Foundation also [1]. A number of attorneys who worked for Watt at the foundation later assumed positions of responsibility in the federal government, including Ann Veneman and Gale Norton.

Watt's tenure as Secretary of the Interior was marked by controversy, stemming primarily from his alleged hostility to environmentalism and his support of the development and use of federal lands by foresting, ranching, and other commercial interests. A public controversy erupted after a speech by Watt on Sept. 21, 1983, when he said about his staff: "I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent." Within weeks of making this statement, Watt resigned.

Watt's conservative strain of born-again Christianity also came under heavy scrutiny and criticism in some quarters, as when (in 1983) he banned The Beach Boys from performing their annual Fourth of July concert on the National Mall on the grounds that rock concerts drew "an undesirable element." [2] His religious beliefs, in fact, apparently contributed heavily to his beliefs about development and the environment. At Watt's confirmation hearing in February 1981, when asked whether he believed that natural resources should be preserved for future generations, he replied, "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns, whatever it is we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations."[3]

In 1995, Watt was indicted on 18 counts of felony perjury and obstruction of justice by a federal grand jury. The indictments were due to false statements made to a grand jury investigating influence peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which he had lobbied in the mid to late 1980s. On January 2, 1996, as part of a plea bargain, Watt pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of withholding documents from a federal grand jury. On March 12, 1996 he was sentenced to 5 years probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and perform 500 hours of community service, a sentence which allowed him to avoid incarceration. [4]

[edit] Quotations

"My responsibility is to follow the Scriptures which call upon us to occupy the land until Jesus returns." -- James G. Watt, The Washington Post, May 24, 1981

"We will mine more, drill more, cut more timber."

"That is the delicate balance the Secretary of the Interior must have: to be steward for the natural resources for this generation as well as future generations. I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns; whatever it is we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations." -- James G. Watt, testimony before the House Interior Committee, February 1981

"I never use the words Democrats and Republicans. It's liberals and Americans." -- James G. Watt, 1982

"We have every mixture you can have. I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent." -- James G. Watt, describing the members of the U.S. Commission on Fair Market Value Policy for Federal Coal Leasing to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on September 21, 1983; from Bartlett's Online

"Liberals have shifted government into a position of being neutral between right and wrong. By concentrating power in government institutions, liberals chisel at the three pillars of society: the family unit, work ethic and faith. That's not good for America." -- James G. Watt, interview, U.S. News and World Report, November 11, 1985

[edit] Quotation controversy

Watt was reported as saying in public testimony: "After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back." This quotation was used by Bill Moyers in a newspaper column.[5] Due to the popularity of Moyers' article, it is now widely believed that Watt actually said this in public testimony. However, the quote originated on page 229 of a book by Austin Miles, "Setting the Captives Free" (Prometheus Books, 1990). Watt denied he ever said those words. Watt subsequently demanded, and received, a public apology from Moyers. Much was made of the gaffe by Watt and rightwing blogs. In The Religious Left's Lies Watt states: "I never said it. Never believed it. Never even thought it. I know no Christian who believes or preaches such error. The Bible commands conservation -- that we as Christians be careful stewards of the land and resources entrusted to us by the Creator." [6] However, the Denver Post (5/16/2001) states:

"The Bush administration's emphasis on drilling its way out of the country's energy problems is enough to make James Watt nostalgic. Watt, who pushed for more energy development on public lands as President Reagan's interior secretary, says Vice President Dick Cheney's recent speech placing production ahead of conservation [see Conservation doesn't enrich Cheney's energy friends is just what he was recommending in the early 1980s."

"'Everything Cheney's saying, everything the president's saying - they're saying exactly what we were saying 20 years ago, precisely,' Watt said in an interview with The Denver Post from his winter home in Wickenburg, Ariz. 'Twenty years later, it sounds like they've just dusted off the old work'.... Watt and national environmental groups rarely agree on anything, but they do agree on the similarity between Bush's energy plans and Watt's goals in the '80s.... As interior secretary for Reagan, Watt supported oil and drilling in wilderness areas and refuges, increased offshore drilling and opposed expansion of national parks" Watt applauds Bush energy strategy

About Bush's energy policies the National Resources Defense Council says "The Bush administration is making it increasingly easy for the energy industry to drill for oil and gas in many of America's most beautiful, remote and sensitive public lands. Across the West, federal agencies are rushing to lease these areas for oil and gas development, industrializing millions of acres of previously wild and open land. The dense web of power lines, pipelines, waste pits, roads and processing plants springing up across the West is driving deer, grizzly bears and other wildlife from their native ranges. Meanwhile, polluting haze from new industrial plants has significantly impaired visibility in many parts of the West." [7]. It is hard for many people to see this as conservation. See also Slower, Costlier and Dirtier A Critique of the Bush Energy Plan

About Bush's environmental policies in general the NRDC says in Rewriting the Rules The Bush Administration's First Term Environmental Record: "After four years in office, the George W. Bush administration has compiled an environmental record that is taking our nation in a new and dangerous direction. Last year alone, Bush administration agencies made more than 150 actions that weakened our environmental laws. Over the course of the first term, this administration led the most thorough and destructive campaign against America's environmental safeguards in the past 40 years."

Indeed, history shows that Bush's environmental policies does correspond closely to Watt's proposals and actions as Interior Secretary: "Watt came to the U.S. Department of the Interior from a position as founding president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) in Denver, a conservative group that acted on the behalf of oil, timber, development, and mineral corporations. Started with money from Joseph Coors, of Coors Brewery, the MSLF took donations from some 175 corporations.... During his tenure as Secretary of the Interior, Watt cut funds for environmental programs, such as those protecting endangered species, and reorganized the department to put less regulatory power on the federal level. He favored the elimination of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which increased the land holdings of national forests, national wildlife refuges, and national parks and made matching grants to state governments to do the same. Watt also favored opening extensive shorelands and wilderness areas for oil and gas leases, speeding the sale of public lands to private interests and doing so at bargain prices. Watt also loosened regulations on oil and mineral resource extraction companies" [8]. See also [9] [10] [11]. "Never has America seen two more intensely controversial and blatantly anti-environmental political appointees than Watt and Gorsuch," said Greg Wetstone, director of advocacy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, who served on the Hill during the Reagan era as chief environment council at the House Energy and Commerce Committee." [12]. Another perspective on the Moyer's/Watt controversy here.

Also see: Wolf, Ron. 1981. God, James Watt, and the Public Land. Audubon 83(3):65, this archived Time magazine article (August 23, 1982) Going, Going...! Land sale of the century [13] and The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis by Lynn White, Jr.