July
30, 2001
CounterPunch
Profile In Ignominy
Bruce Babbitt:
Man Without Shame
No better case for cynicism about politics
is currently available that the career of Bruce Babbitt, Interior
Secretary in Clinton time, an era now bodied forth by major green
groups in their fundraising material as a time when stewardship
of the nation's natural resources can contrast finely with the
pillage supposedly ushered in by the Cheney-Bush crowd.
Before leaving the Department
of Interior, Babbitt promised that he wouldn't cash in on his
years of government service by becoming a high-priced DC lawyer.
Then he promptly took a job with Latham and Watkins, a big Washington
law firm whose clients include some of the roughest environmental
pillagers in the business. Babbitt defended his about-face by
saying that he needs to make money to pay off his legal bills
stemming from an independent counsel investigation into whether
or not he committed perjury when he said did not try to shake
down Indian tribes for campaign contributions.
Within days of landing his
new job as a counsel in the firm's Environmental Litigation shop,
Babbitt could be found at the annual gathering of the Nuclear
Energy Institute, the $3 billion lobbying arm of the nuclear
industry, cheerleading for the planned Yucca Mountain Nuclear
Waste Dump, on Western Shoshone lands in Nevada. The Clinton
administration opposed the dump, acting more out of a desire
to keep Nevada Sen. Harry Reid happy than any sudden seizure
of ecological conscience. "It's a safe, solid geologic repository,"
Babbitt proclaimed, evoking a standing ovation from the massed
nukers, something even Dick Cheney had failed to do when he spoke
to the NEI earlier that morning.
Among Babbitt's present clients
are two of the biggest developers on The California coast: Washington
Mutual, developers of the Ahmanson Ranch in Ventura County and
the Hearst ranch at San Simeon below Big Sur. In his last year
as interior secretary Babbitt resisted protective measures for
the endangered red-legged frog and San Fernando spineflower as
endangered species. The spineflower, an ankle high plant with
delicate white flowers that resemble baby's breath, was declared
to be extinct in 1929, until botanists found several thousand
plants growing on the south slope Laskey Mesa, where many of
the shops and homes in the 5,500 Ahmanson ranch development are
scheduled to be built. The red-legged frog similarly flourishes
on Ahmanson property. If Babbitt's Interior Department had rated
the species as requiring critical habitat it would been another
serious block against development plans.
On April 15 of this year the
New York Times published an op-ed by Babbitt arguing for an easing
of classification procedures involving endangered species. Neither
he not the NYT felt it necessary to disclose that as a lawyer
working for Washington Mutual and the Hearsts, Babbitt was a
highly interested party.
Babbitt's association with
the Hearst Ranch presents an equally unattractive picture of
yesterday's supposed protector of the environmental abetting
a scheme either to wreck the coastline below Hearst castle south
of Big Sur, or extort staggering sums from the feds and the state
of California for leaving it alone, at least for the time being
until, twenty five years down the road, the costly conservation
easements are forgotten and development begins.
During his tenure at Interior,
Babbitt ushered through hundreds of complex lands swaps and federal
buyouts of private property where potential development plans
had been stymied by environmental restrictions. The deals often
ended up with the developers getting much more money than their
land is worth. The most high profile example was the Headwaters
Forest bailout, where corporate raider Charles Hurwitz ran off
with more than $480 million for land that an Interior Department
land appraiser concluded had a market value of less than $100
million.
A news story by Kenneth Weiss and John Johnson in the Times earlier
this week described how lawyers for the Hearst family are taking
advantage of a new entirely legal scam whereby 19th century records
known as certificates of compliance can be used for such purposes
as creating ocean-front parcels and subdivisions, over-riding
existing zoning restrictions, even though the original parcels
may have been inland and worthless terrain. As the news story
made clear, developers have been using the law as leverage to
extort huge sums from conservation groups as the price for easements
protecting the land.
Hearst lawyers have amassed
a parcel of documents that could allow the corporation to chop
the 83,000-acre ranch into 279 parcels and create oceanfront
subdivisions. According to the Los Angeles Times, Steven Hearst
has suggested that the Hearst Corporation may be willing to forego
such plans if the government will pony up $300 million or more
to buy them out.
Babbitt defends the use of
certificates of compliance to maximize the value of the land.
"I would advise any client who is considering alternative
uses to perfect their rights," he told the Times. "It's
good, proper and correct to do that." Yes, this is the
Interior Secretary who, with vice president Al Gore, railed against
developments eroding America's natural treasures. Is there a
better argument than Babbitt for the Naderites' case that on
the practical level the two parties are one, and the despoliation
continues whether Babbitt or Gale Norton run Interior or which
one of them spins through the revolving door and go to work for
a firm like Latham and Watkins. CP
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