Battle lines were laid out before Bush took office

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In 2000, George W. Bush campaigned as a "uniter, not a divider." But when it came to winning over environmentalists he never stood a chance.

Even before his inauguration, leaders of a handful of the largest environmental groups — the Natural Resources Defense Council, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Defenders of Wildlife — were hatching a strategy to undermine his presidency.

"We decided to hit him hard and fast on the first two environmental issues he attacked," recalls Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. They launched signature drives opposing Bush's plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. They bought television time to attack his efforts to reverse Clinton-era plans to cut arsenic levels in drinking water.

Bush's background as an oilman — and his philosophy toward the environment — put him at odds with these groups. His ascension also signaled a loss of their influence.

President Clinton had given them unprecedented access: The man coordinating White House environmental policy was George Frampton, a former head of The Wilderness Society. Clinton's Interior secretary, Bruce Babbitt, had been president of the League of Conservation Voters, the political arm of the environmental movement.

Bush, on the other hand, made clear with a few key appointments that he sought a new direction. He appointed one of their fiercest longtime adversaries — former timber-industry lobbyist Mark Rey — as an Agriculture undersecretary who oversaw the U.S. Forest Service. And Bush's choice to replace Babbitt — former Colorado Attorney General Gale Norton — had been a protégé of another man environmentalists loved to vilify: President Reagan's Interior secretary, James Watt.

Barely three months into Bush's term, the lines were clearly drawn. Environmentalists — and the Democratic National Committee — already had dubbed Bush "the worst environmental president in history."

— Craig Welch

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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