Word: watt
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...House bill also contains a proviso that would halt Watt's tentative plan to sell the oil and gas rights to four oceanic basins off the northern California coast. The tracts are in the middle of rich commercial fishing grounds and are home to several species of threatened marine life. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the basins contain only about 300 million bbl. of crude, or roughly twelve days' worth of the nation's oil needs. Environmentalists have been joined in the battle to prevent sale by some conservative Republicans, who feel that the auction would...
...Watt's long-range plans call for the leasing of 1 billion acres of offshore tracts within five years. Aside from the ecological damage this might cause, Edwin Rothschild, director of the liberal Washington-based group Energy Action, argues that the leasing is "a dumb business move." Reason: it would quadruple the area opened each year for exploration at a time when oil companies are finding it difficult enough to develop profitably the tracts already available. Watt's answer is that he expects the oil companies to determine which tracts should be developed. Says...
...time of his appointment, Watt was head of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a Denver-based "public interest" law firm that took a prodevelopment stance in various environmental disputes. Conservationists thought then that he was a poor choice to head Interior, and still do. The Environmental Defense Fund, a legal action group, announced last week that it will sue Watt for delaying the addition of 44 species, most of them Hawaiian snails, to the endangered species list. The San Francisco-based Sierra Club, one of Watt's most vocal opponents, is continuing to circulate impeachment petitions. And Friends...
...most significant attack on Watt has been made by the 4.7 million-member National Wildlife Federation, by far the largest conservation group and a bastion of conservative Republicanism. Two weeks ago, the federation sent a letter to the President calling for Watt's dismissal. Said Executive Vice President Jay D. Hair: "Evidence of Mr. Watt's unsuitability has become so overwhelming that the sooner he is relieved of his duties, the better it will be for the country and its resources...
White House Chief of Staff James Baker insists that the President has "absolute faith" in his Secretary. But one senior adviser admitted that the federation's condemnation was "disturbing," and Presidential Counsellor Edwin Meese asked to meet with Hair soon. Watt's difficulty, White House aides believe, stems more from style than substance. Says a Reagan aide: "He's just too confrontational. If he could soften the edges slightly, it would make a big difference." Watt has been told to clear major policy announcements with the White House so that image-conscious aides can try to mute...