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PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Mining Lobbyist Nominated for Key Interior Post Washington, DC -- The Bush Administration has nominated Rebecca W. Watson- a long time lobbyist and attorney for extractive industries - to the post of Assistant Secretary of Land and Minerals Management. In this capacity Ms. Watson would oversee the Bureau of Land Management, the Minerals Management Service and the Office of Surface Mining. This position will play a key part in the implementation of the Bush-Cheney energy plan through decision-making on oil, gas and coal bed methane leases, hard rock mining, off-shore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, mountain top removal mining and clean up of abandoned coal mines. "The Bush Administration continues to nominate industry lobbyists to oversee the management of our public lands" said Kristen Sykes, Friends of the Earth Interior Department Watchdog. " We are concerned that it would be difficult for her to be in this position and not have a bias towards industry on these issues." Watson is currently a partner with the law firm of Gough Shanahan, Johnson and Waterman in Helena, Montana where she has represented mining companies seeking to open more federal lands to development. From 1993-1995 she practiced law with Crowell and Moring a firm in Washington representing major multi-national businesses and national trade associations in the areas of mining, forest products, agriculture, and construction. In 1999 Ms. Watson unsuccessfully represented defendants, including, the Seven-Up Pete Joint Venture and Canyon Resources Corporations, in a 1999 clean water case that sought to uphold the rights of Montanans to a clean and healthful environment under the Montana constitution. The suit was filed because the Montana Department of Environmental Quality had allowed the Seven-Up Pete Joint Venture to pump, without treatment, millions of gallons of arsenic-tainted water into the Landers Fork and Blackfoot Rivers. The Montana Supreme court upheld the constitution and affirmed Montanans right to a clean and healthful environment. In response to this decision Watson said, "This is another blow at the economic vitality and at the future of Montana and Montana's children". In her role at the Interior Department Ms. Watson will play a key role in the development of management plans for national monuments designated by the Clinton Administration. Last year, Ms. Watson represented opponents of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument designated by President Clinton. This monument protects one of the last remaining intact areas discovered by the Lewis and Clark expedition. |
