Norton wants Westerner as next interior secretary

DENVER – In her first visit home since announcing her resignation, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Wednesday another Westerner should replace her as chief manager of the nation’s public lands and resources.

“I think it’s important to have somebody who really understands what a significant role the Interior Department can play in people’s lives here in the West,” she said.

Norton, a former Colorado attorney general, plans to step down at the end of the month after five years heading the department that oversees the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and other agencies that manage millions of acres of public land.

She said she is leaving for personal reasons and not because of any ethics issues involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty in January to federal charges related to congressional influence peddling and defrauding Indian tribes of millions of dollars.

In e-mail exchanges made public after his plea, Abramoff mentioned having an inside track at the Interior Department, and his clients donated heavily to the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, which Norton co-founded.

“I feel that the Department of Interior’s decisions were made based on the law and the facts and made in an appropriate way,” said Norton, adding that she had little contact with Abramoff.

Norton said she wanted to step down as early as possible in President Bush’s second term to allow her successor time to take over and continue programs. She said she might have left earlier if not for such tasks as restoring offshore energy production after the hurricanes that racked the Gulf Coast.

Norton said she has talked to Bush about potential successors but declined to speculate about individuals. Former Colorado GOP Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., have been mentioned as possible candidates. White House officials have indicated they will look West for Norton’s replacement.

Norton has championed Bush’s push for more domestic energy production from public lands, drawing the wrath of conservationists and the support of mineral, logging and other industries.

She said the country must balance stewardship with meeting energy demands and easing the impact of high energy prices on businesses and families.

The public lands open for energy development are areas Congress has designated for multiple uses and don’t include national parks, wildlife refuges or wilderness, Norton said. The Interior Department has tried to build consensus on issues by bringing diverse interests together, she added.

“I feel that we have made a very significant contribution in cooperative conservation. I really view that as the hallmark of what I’ve tried to accomplish,” Norton said.

Mike Chiropolos of Boulder-based Western Resource Advocates, an environmental law and policy group, said he believes the cooperation has been one-way.

“It was implemented when local, state and tribal governments agreed with what the administration wanted to do,” Chiropolos said.