Norton to Resign as Secretary of Interior Department

[MarvB]

from NGI

In a surprise move, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced Friday she will be resigning at the end of the month after five years of service in the Bush administration.

In a two-page letter to President Bush on Thursday, Norton said it was a "difficult decision, but the time has come to submit my resignation effective at the end of this month." During her term, "this department has climbed the mountaintop in terms of achieving the goals we set out to accomplish...Now I feel it is time for me to leave this mountain you gave me to climb, catch my breath, then set my sights on new goals to achieve in the private sector. Hopefully, my husband and I will end up closer to the mountains we love in the West," she wrote.

Norton indicated that the partisanship in Washington, DC also had factored into her decision. "As a person deeply committed to bipartisan and civil public discourse, one aspect of Washington I will not miss is the divisiveness that too often prevails."

House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA) said he was "saddened" by Norton's announced departure. "The secretary held one of the most difficult Cabinet positions and did so with grace and composure. For too long the important missions of the department, to facilitate access to and development of natural resources...and stewarding our nation's resources for future generations to enjoy, have been portrayed as mutually exclusive. Gale recognized that need not be the case and worked to find solutions."

Rep. John Peterson (R-PA), a strong proponent of offshore drilling, said Norton was "especially adroit at striking the difficult, but necessary, balance between protecting our environment and securing the energy needed to keep our country competitive." He noted that Norton "[has] heard plenty from me over the past several months as I've continued to make the case for opening up vital and abundant reserves of deep-sea natural gas -- which seems to run contrary to the administration's position."

It's unclear what impact, if any, Norton's resignation will have on the department's proposed five-year leasing plan (2007-2012) for the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), which seeks to open additional acreage of Lease 181 in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Her resignation comes at a time when Interior has come under attack from Capitol Hill and in the press for the method it uses to calculate royalties for oil and natural gas production on federal lands. A New York Times article, published in late January, alleged that out-dated royalty regulations -- which require the agency to value royalties based on lower wellhead prices rather than the higher market prices -- prevented the federal government from taking advantage of the bonanza in natural gas prices in fiscal year 2005.

The newspaper estimated that Interior's Minerals Management Service could have collected an additional $700 million in gas royalties last year for the federal coffers had royalties been calculated using the higher market prices for gas instead of the wellhead price.

In response to the Times' story, House Democrats in late February introduced legislation that would, at current high prices, put an end to much of the royalty relief for oil and gas production on federal lands. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) and six other House lawmakers, calls on the Interior secretary to renegotiate existing oil and gas leases to ensure that producers are paying the required amount of royalties for energy development on federal property.

More recently, a House Government Reform Subcommittee has begun investigating why oil and gas leases negotiated between the Interior Department and producers in 1998 and 1999 did not include price thresholds -- a move that the panel estimates could cost the federal government as much as $7 billion in royalties on production from the OCS.

Leases negotiated in 1996, 1997 and 2000 contained price caps as authorized by the Deep Water Royalty Relief Act of 1995, but the thresholds were omitted in the 1998 and 1999 leases, according to the House Energy and Resources Subcommittee. "The amount of revenue lost to the U.S. government [as a result of the omission]-- up to $7 billion -- is staggering," said Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) during a recent hearing.

The royalty-relief law called for price thresholds to be included in the leases to prevent producers from benefiting twice when oil and gas prices escalated -- once from the royalty relief, and again from the higher energy prices.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Ding Dong the witch is gone.....

 

[TheTone]

After looking at todays paper I'm having mixed feelings over this one. On one hand she hasn't done anything IMO to benefit wildlife and the environment, but on the other I'm just as worried about some of the possible replacements that were named. Among them was Dirk who I personally feel would be beyond terrible for the position, but that would mean that Idaho would be able to get rid of him as governor early. Hmmmm...

 

[BuzzH]

She isnt stupid...the rats are just jumping ship.

There is going to be huge back-lash and someone will take a dive for the corruption of expedited oil and gas development, wont be her though.

The BLM thinks they have lawsuits now...HAHA...

 

[MarvB]

The next battle begins...Bush Taps Idaho Governor as Next Interior Secretary

President Bush on Thursday announced the nomination of two-term Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to be the next secretary of Interior, selecting a western Republican who has national presence and close ties to Capitol Hill.

Kempthorne, 54, will replace Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who plans to step down as head of the department at the end of this month following five years with the Bush administration.

"Dirk Kempthorne is the right man to build on [the] progress" during the Norton era, Bush told reporters. He "will continue my administration's efforts to...develop the energy potential of federal lands and waters in environmentally sensitive ways."

Kempthorne was first elected governor of Idaho in 1998, following a six-year stint as a U.S. senator. Prior to coming to the Senate, he served as mayor of Boise, ID, for seven years. Because of his previous ties to Capitol Hill, his nomination is not expected to face any problems in the Senate. "Dirk is a strong nominee," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN).

The nomination of Kempthorne has come under attack from environmentalists. "At a time when these controversial issues need a leader who can find common ground, the president could not have chosen a more divisive nominee," said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust. "As a senator and a governor, Dirk Kempthorne has been an unabashed champion of the resource extraction and development interests that profit most from public lands. He has led the fight to open the last untouched 30% of the national forests to logging, mining and oil and gas drilling."

However, Kempthorne contends that he is a consensus-builder. "One of the hallmarks of my public service has been my ability to bring people to the table and to work together to build consensus. I pledge to you [President Bush] and to the American people that I will continue in that role of reaching our and finding solutions," he said during the press briefing announcing his nomination.

As Idaho's governor, Kempthorne has served as chairman of the National Governors Association, chairman of the Western Governors Association, and president of the Council of State Governments. He is married and has two grown children.

 

[BuzzH]

Not a surprise thats for sure.

Dirk is the perfect choice for an administration bent on destroying public lands.

 

[TheTone]

Agreed Buzz, who better to help push forward Bush's desire to sell off public lands than someone who has already supported it in his own state. About the only thing I have agreed with Dirk about has been his desire to delist wolves.