Thread: Interior Secretary Gail Norton to resign from Bush cabinet

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Published March 10, 2006 Comment (0) Print E-Mail Subscribe
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Interior Secretary Gail Norton to resign from Bush cabinet

BY JOHN HEILPRIN

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHNINGTON — Interior Secretary Gale Norton is resigning after five years in President Bush's Cabinet, The Associated Press has learned.

Norton, a former Colorado attorney general who guided the Bush administration's initiative to open Western government lands to more oil and gas drilling, planned to announce her decision today, a senior government official and another source familiar with her decision told the AP.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to upstage an announcement from the White House.

Gale Norton was also Attorney General for the State of Colorado when neil (and take it) bush was the CEO of Silverado Savings and Loan, which bilked the public for 1 billion.
Gale presided over the investigation which resulted in nothing. Her payback, her position in W's admin likely.
Colorado is now being perforated like a pincushion with gas and oil leases everywhere, being sold by the federal govt. including those in and above town watersheds. It's nuts.
If she is leaving then the end is near for this administration. They have accomplished what they set out to do, rob the people blind.

I guess this opens up a position for Julie Myers little sister (if she has one).

and the tooth fairy for Secretary of State, after condi gets cheneys job.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/10/polit ... ref=slogin

March 10, 2006
Interior Secretary to End Tenure Marked by Conservation Battles
By MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON, March 10 — Gale A. Norton, who as interior secretary has been a key player in the Bush administration's efforts to exploit natural resources on federal lands and a focal point of dissatisfaction by environmentalists, announced today that she was resigning, effective at the end of the month. She said that she had accomplished much of what she had intended to do, and hinted at fatigue.

Ms. Norton has been on the job for five years, and was at the nexus of many controversies, including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other sensitive areas, administration of the Endangered Species Act, handling of trust money for Indian tribes, and collection of royalties due the government for natural gas drilling on public lands.

During her tenure, snowmobiles returned to Yellowstone National Park, and extensive areas were opened up for drilling and logging, but the Arctic refuge was not. She has also presided over the department as it became enmeshed in a Washington corruption scandal involving the lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

More than her predecessors had, she stressed voluntary conservation measures and "cooperative conservation," with partnership with landowners, rather than regulation. She also stressed volunteerism.

Word of her departure elicited mixed reviews. In a statement, the Industrial Energy Consumers Of America praised Ms. Norton as "outstanding." Defenders of Wildlife said, in a two-word press release, "Good riddance."

Ms. Norton, who turns 52 on Saturday, said in a letter to the president that her department had "climbed the mountaintop" in achieving its goals and that "now I feel it is time for me to leave this mountain that you gave me to climb, catch my breath, then set my sites on new goals to achieve in the private sector." A former attorney general of Colorado, she said she and her husband, John, wanted to go back to be "closer to the mountains we love in the West."

Ms. Norton was one of four survivors from Mr. Bush's original cabinet. Those remaining from that group are Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Defense Department, Elaine G. Chao at Labor, and Norman Y. Mineta at Transportation.

The White House said in a statement that Ms. Northon had "been a strong advocate for the wise use and protection of our nation's natural resources."