Reid vote angers environmentalists

Scott Sonner

Friday, Feb. 2, 2001 | 10:20 a.m.

RENO -- Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's loyalty to the mining industry continues to confound his friends in the environmental community, who are angry over his vote to confirm Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

"Norton's nomination is a giant reward to the oil, gas and mining industries that funded President Bush's campaign," said Jessica Hodge of the Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra Club.

"We are extremely disappointed that Sens. Reid and (John) Ensign voted for someone whose views on the environment are far out of step with the vast majority of people from Nevada," she said.

They were especially disappointed in Reid.

"He's in a leadership role and he could have really made a strong statement about Nevada's environment and the beautiful state we live in," she said Thursday from Las Vegas.

Ensign, a former Republican congressman elected to the Senate in November, has never courted national environmental groups.

His career rating from the League of Conservation Voters is 31 percent, and his $74,450 in campaign contributions from the mining industry last year ranked second among all U.S. Senate candidates.

Reid, on the other hand, is an ally of conservation groups on most issues.

The exception for the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate is mining, especially mining in Nevada -- the third-leading gold producer in the world behind South Africa and Australia.

"He's a very fine senator when it comes to wilderness protection and most public lands issues," said Tom Myers of Great Basin Mine Watch, a non-profit environmental group based in Reno.

"But on mining, I just feel his positions are shortsighted," Myers said.

Reid, also the ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, scored 86 percent on the League of Conservation Voters' scorecard last year.

He voted with environmentalists on such issues as nuclear waste, arctic drilling, livestock grazing, national monuments and timber sale subsidies.

The lone exception? Hardrock mining.

Over his career, Reid's rating with the league has ranged from a low of 63 percent in 1998 to 93 percent in 1995.

His break from environmentalists on mining issues has made him popular among industry leaders.

"Sen. Reid has done a very good job of addressing the needs of a wide array of constituents in Nevada," said Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Industry.

"I don't necessarily see that it is mutually exclusive situation where he either supports the industry or supports the -- quote -- environmentalists," he said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., another key industry ally, said he doesn't know how to gauge Reid's popularity among environmentalists.

"They never approach me," said Gibbons, who scored 14 percent on the conservation scorecard last year.

"I do know Sen. Reid is a very bright man who is able to demonstrate to both sides of this issue that he's a person who cares about the environment as well as the industry," Gibbons said.

Which raises the issue of Reid's support of Norton, the former Colorado attorney general and protege of one of the environmental community's most despised characters -- former Interior Secretary James Watt.

Watt hired her to work at the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation. Critics say her zeal to protect private property rights comes at the expense of fish and wildlife.

But Gibbons said Nevada's interests are "very much parallel to her philosophy, whether it is mining, ranching or farming interests.

"I know there are a lot of extremists out there who don't like her. But unfortunately for them, I think she has a lot of support," Gibbons said.

"I think she is going to bring an intelligent degree of common sense to the leadership of the Department of Interior. For too long we have had an individual there who wanted to kick the public off the public land."

Reid's endorsement -- one of 25 Democrats to back her -- was much less ringing. He said he hopes Norton and President Bush do not view confirmation of as a "mandate for the rollback of environmental protections enacted over the past eight years."

Reid said a new law phasing out snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park "will provide a litmus test for whether President Bush will promote conservation or oversee the decline and degradation of our treasured national park system and our public lands generally."

Aides said Reid's decision to vote to confirm her came down largely to mining.

"She may be good for Nevada on the BLM mining regulations that give new discretion to the interior secretary to veto a new mining site," said David Cherry, Reid's press secretary.

Among other things, the Bureau of Land Management's "3809" mining regulations expand some bonding requirements to apply to smaller mines. But the reform that bothers the industry most is the section that gives the interior secretary authority to deny a permit for a new mine if it could damage the environment.

The regulations went into effect Jan. 20, the day President Clinton left office.

"We think that is no small coincidence," said John Grasser, vice president of the National Mining Association in Washington., which has filed a lawsuit to block implementation.