Babbitt says overturning Clinton’s environmental legacy would be

Monday, Jan. 8, 2001 | 3:32 a.m.

President-elect Bush has criticized actions by President Clinton that restrict timber cutting, oil drilling and mining on federal land, and some Western Republicans are urging him to reverse several of those decisions.

Babbitt, in an interview with The Associated Press, said, "I think that attempts to undo the gains of the last eight years are going to be very costly, because there's an enormous amount of public support."

Rep. Jim Hansen, the Utah Republican who now chairs the House Resources Committee, wrote Bush an eight-page letter last month outlining ways to reverse several Clinton environmental regulations. Gale Norton, Bush's choice to replace Babbitt, once worked for the Mountain States Legal Foundation, which has sued Babbitt repeatedly to try to do the same.

Babbitt declined to criticize Norton, but did denounce an idea Norton and Hansen have supported: compensating property owners when environmental regulations stop them from developing their land.

"The radical property-rights crowd are anarchists at heart, and I don't believe the American people will buy into that," Babbitt said in the interview last week.

Hansen and other Republicans have blocked many Clinton administration environmental initiatives, such as raising grazing fees and royalties for minerals dug from federal land. Babbitt said he is proud that the administration, through regulations, has accomplished many of the goals blocked by Congress, something that enraged Republicans.

"Here we are, having achieved 80 percent of what was sought in legislation, by administrative rule," said Babbitt, who has been interior secretary since the start of the Clinton administration.

Most galling to Western Republicans has been Clinton's use of the 1906 Antiquities Act to create and expand national monuments, further restricting development on federal land. On Babbitt's recommendation, Clinton has created or expanded 13 national monuments, most of them in the West.

Babbitt has recommended five new or expanded monuments in Montana, California and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and said he is still "actively considering" recommending other new monuments in Arizona and New Mexico. Clinton's creation of monuments also prodded Congress into adding protection to federal tracts in Colorado, Oregon, California and Arizona in the past two years.

Four of the new monuments have been in Arizona, where Babbitt grew up and served as governor. That blunted criticism that the actions were taken by Washington bureaucrats unfamiliar with the areas, Babbitt said.

"I know every inch of land and every third person in Arizona," Babbitt boasted.

After he leaves office Jan. 20, Babbitt plans to write a book and continue to speak out on environmental issues. He said he plans to "spend a lot of time fighting" Bush's proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and natural gas drilling.

Although some have urged Babbitt to head a conservation group or take a university job, he said he would not do so. He said he also would not become a lobbyist, but might affiliate with a law firm. Another political run is out of the question, he said.

"I will be spending a lot of time writing and speaking, but I am not seeking institutional affiliation," Babbitt said. "I will be a private citizen. I am not for hire."