In The Northwest: We should be wary of environmental optimists

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Friday, July 16, 2004

In The Northwest: We should be wary of environmental optimists

By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

Over dinner this week, President Bush's senior environmental adviser laid out a case not often heard in this green corner of the country: Americans can have their cake and eat it too.

James Connaughton, chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, argued that new technology allows oil, gas and mineral development to proceed without fouling the air and gouging the land.

In interests of giving the Bush administration its just desserts, my feeling is to let readers hear out Mr. Connaughton, but share worried thoughts that popped to mind as he spoke.

The environmental Bushman is, first off, a relentless optimist about how far we've come since President Nixon signed America's basic environmental laws in the 1970s.

"It is unassailable that air pollution is half of what it was 30 years ago," said Connaughton. "We have stopped the net loss of our wetlands.

"When we do mineral resource extraction, it leaves less 'footprint' than ever before. With one (oil) well, we can extract what once took thousands of wells. The vision of how we do oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico is completely different than we did 40 years ago.

"When you apply the new technology -- and look at what it accomplishes -- we should declare victory because problems have been solved by innovation."

A classic example of a place to demonstrate the "new technology," argued Connaughton, is the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, calving ground to the 110,000 animals of the Porcupine Caribou herd.

The refuge has been the scene of a 25-year war between environmentalists and the oil industry. The Bush administration wants the coastal plain opened to oil and gas drilling.

Development of the Arctic Refuge would amount to "a few holes in a 2,000-acre area, connected to a pipeline with an unparalleled safety record," Connaughton opined.

As well, he argued, better to have oil development under specifications of United States' environmental laws than someplace else on the planet without such protections.

"I look at where this can be done more effectively, more safely, more cheaply. I come down on the side of the lowest impact," Connaughton said. "The greatest opportunity to offset (oil imports) with the least impact is (the Arctic Wildlife Refuge)."

A word is in order about the Council on Environmental Quality.

The White House office is a product of the Nixon administration. In the years before Watergate, transplanted Seattle attorneys John Ehrlichman and Egil "Bud" Krogh worked with a Democrat, Washington Sen. Henry Jackson, to put in place such laws as the National Environmental Policy Act.

The CEQ, more than most offices, has come to reflect the personality of the incumbent administration.

Its boss in the Clinton years was Katie McGinty, a top aide to Vice President Al Gore and environmental advocate. She crossed swords even with such conservationists as Idaho's then-Gov. Cecil Andrus.

Connaughton was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley & Austin before being picked by Bush to head CEQ. The law firm's clients have included major corporations with sites on the Superfund list, notably Asarco and General Electric. He co-authored a 1993 law journal entitled "Defending Charges of Environmental Crime -- The Growth Industry of the 90s."

"I am not from the West, but have learned a lot about the West since taking this job," Connaughton said.

Connaughton is a major defender of the Healthy Forests Act, which accelerated thinning of forests to prevent fires. At a 2002 hearing, he told congressmen that "the best place to get commercial grade timber is in the context of these thinning projects. ... That is really what this is about."

Connaughton also signed off on this week's reversal of the Roadless Rule, the Clinton administration initiative that prohibited new logging roads in undeveloped national forest lands.

"We're confident we will come out with much better roadless designations," he said. "We are confident we will end up with much of what was preserved (under Clinton)."

The CEQ boss argues that the Bush administration has tried to "find the best balance" in protecting federal forests while using them as a source of wood products.

One wonders.

Although national forests belong to the people of America, the Bush policy gives governors a key role in determining the fate of wild places within their states.

Such governors as Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, Frank Murkowski of Alaska and Judy Martz of Montana are timber industry satraps who have long sought to step up logging.

The upper Clearwater River country of Idaho -- traversed by Lewis and Clark 200 years ago, still wild and beloved by anglers and outdoors enthusiasts -- is an example of the country put at risk.

Connaughton is correct in hailing the evolution of oil and gas technology.

Yet, one can look at such places as Wyoming's once-bucolic Powder River valley and question assurances.

Over the past decade, the Powder River has become a center of efforts to extract natural gas from coal deposits. The industry promised ranchers a tiny "footprint." Instead, grazing lands are densely roaded. Wells have popped up by the hundreds. Methane has poisoned the water supply on some ranches.

Advances in technology did not prevent the Exxon Valdez oil spill. We once had a governor -- Dixy Lee Ray -- who pooh-poohed warnings about nuclear power plant safety. Then came Three Mile Island, and after that Chernobyl.

Connaughton is an idealistic man, who sees progress through technology, the free market and voluntary compliance.

Still, America's wildlands should be spared "progress" as defined by the Murkowskis and Kempthornes of this world.

And Ronald Reagan's famous rule for missiles should be applied to the environment: "Trust, but verify."

P-I columnist Joel Connelly can be reached at 206-448-8160 or joelconnelly@seattlepi.com

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