Word: watt
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...Watt's bigotry deserves reprimand, as does his penchant for offensive rhetoric. But why haven't Watt's strip-mining, oil-drilling, wilderness-plundering tendencies prompted an earlier scandal? Why don't Watt's reprehensible actions provoke the same level of public outrage...
Supposedly, Watt's job is to protect the environment. His track record as Interior Secretary, however, would lead one to believe otherwise. He subscribes to the "multiple use" concept of land management plunder rather than preserve...
...ACCORDANCE with this pro-industry stance. Watt most recently tried to lease more land for coal strip-mining. In 1981, he opened up 400,000 new acres of national parks to drilling and mining. (Although energy leasing had been done in the Carter Administration, 'hard rock' mining of minerals causes considerably more damage to the land.) In 1982, Watt presented Congress with a plan that would open virtually the entire nation's coastline to drilling...
...Watt also allowed private concessionaires a larger role in national parks. If he had his way, such sanctuaries as the Matagorda Wildlife Refuge (home of the last whooping cranes) would be bulldozed over and converted into ore mines...
...only a small group of well-informed, environmentally aware citizens has attacked these travesties of environmental justice. Neither Watt's colleagues at the Capitol nor members of the general public seem to care as much about the secretary's ability to do his job as they do about his insulting remarks. The last time Watt provoked this such angry press was when he barred the Beach Boys from performing on the Washington Mall for the Fourth of July. Of course, each new unpopular action Watt takes is welcome, no matter how insubstantial--anything that brings the man closer...