Gorton Lambastes Environmentalists

Sen. Slade Gorton is railing against radical urban “armchair environmentalists” in urging rejection of a bill that would ban all commercial logging in national forests.

Gorton, R-Wash., says he is “appalled” by the bill introduced last week by Reps. Jim Leach, R-Iowa; Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga.; and Jim McDermott, D-Wash.

In remarks prepared for a speech he intends to give on the Senate floor today, Gorton said the bill “has absolutely no chance of passage.

“Yet, it’s another confirmation of the radical nature of our opponents in this debate about managing our national resources,” Gorton said in the prepared text.

The bill follows in the footsteps of the Sierra Club’s new national policy opposing all commercial logging on federal lands, a “zero-cut” philosophy, Gorton said.

“Proponents of a zero-cut policy on federal lands lead an effort to further erode the economic balance of rural Americans,” said Gorton, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the interior, which oversees the Forest Service’s budget.

“It is an effort by mostly urban environmentalists - armchair environmentalists - who have forgotten or who never knew what it takes to produce fiber and shelter and are indifferent to the communities and jobs that produce these commodities,” he said.