A Stormy Petrel for Interior

Who promises to open more federal land to development

"I am bringing an interesting dimension to the department," said Interior Secretary-designate James G. Watt.

It was a wry understatement. Environmentalists could scarcely have been more shocked if Reagan had chosen Ebenezer Scrooge to head Interior. "Like hiring a fox to guard the chickens!" protested Bernard Ewell, president of the Colorado Open Space Council. Said Carolyn Johnson, an official of the Public Lands Institute, a privately funded watchdog group: "Watt may be the first person ever to unite 176 separate Indian tribes on a single issue: opposition to him."

Denver Lawyer James Gaius Watt, 42, scarcely looks like a stormy petrel. He is a balding, affable attorney with a reputation for being a workaholic dedicated to absorbing every relevant fact in a lawsuit--and then using the facts to devastating effect in the courtroom. Son of a lawyer in Lusk, Wyo., who represented ranchers and farmers, Watt married Leilani Bomgardner while still a student at the University of Wyoming (J.D. '62). He worked as a legislative aide to former Republican Senator Milward Simpson, then became a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior and later, commissioner of the Federal Power Commission. For the past three years he has been president of Denver's Mountain States Legal Foundation, a public-interest firm of ten lawyers that was formed in 1977 by Joseph Coors, the Colorado brewer and backer of archconservative causes.

Mountain States is dedicated to bringing "a balanced perspective in the courtroom" to protect "the concepts of the private enterprise system." Thus Mountain States sued successfully to block the Colorado Public Utilities Commission from requiring utilities to sell natural gas to the elderly and handicapped poor at discount rates. The fund contended that the state should not require private companies to pursue "public welfare" goals to the detriment of other power users.

Mountain States' current suits include one that would prevent the Jicarilla Apaches, who like other tribes are overseen by the Department of Interior, from levying taxes on natural gas piped out of their reservation in northern New Mexico. In another case, Watt's law firm in October persuaded a federal district court in Cheyenne, Wyo., to rule that the Departments of Interior and Agriculture could not refuse to consider applications for exploratory oil-and gas-drilling leases on federal land that is being considered for reclassification as wilderness.

That case points to the central issue between Watt and environmentalists: their fear that he will let private oil and mining companies dig, drill and scrape at will on Western public lands. Says Chuck Malick, president of the High Country Citizens Alliance in Crested Butte, Colo.: "The West is being given away. We will become an energy colony for the East and West coasts."

Watt readily confirmed that he intends to "bring some dramatic changes" to federal land management. "My heart is in the West," he said. "This is my land, and it will be managed with love and delicate concern." He pledged to move aggressively to inventory Western public lands that might have potential for oil, gas and coal exploration. He views his opponents as "environmental extremists--one of these special-interest groups [who would] deny the balanced management of resources for the benefit of consumers and for all of America." He acknowledged that this belief might cause some Senators to fight his appointment, but declared: "If a man is not strong enough to take flak in congressional hearings, he is not strong enough to take the job."

Watt has several allies who share his view that land-use policies have tilted too much in favor of environmentalists. Says Walter Hickel, the former Alaska land developer who surprised critics with his pro-environment policies as Richard Nixon's Interior Secretary (and Watt's boss): "There are lots of questions to be asked about current policies, and Watt will bring a balanced position to them." Watt does have a keen sense of humor, which he often uses to break the tension of hot-tempered debates. In his new job, Watt may need a chuckle a minute.

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