McCain Vows to Repeal Ban on New Roads in Wilderness
12/21/99
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Title: McCain Vows to Repeal Ban on New Roads in Wilderness
Source: The New York Times
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 21, 1999
Byline: ALISON MITCHELL
BETHLEHEM, N.H., Dec. 20 -- Campaigning near New Hampshire's White
Mountain National Forest, Senator John McCain promised today that if
elected president he would repeal President Clinton's recent
executive order banning roads in more than 50 million acres of
pristine wilderness.
Even as he came out against the ban, which he said took power out of
local hands, Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, painted himself as a
Theodore Roosevelt-style conservationist. He called for new
investment in the country's 379 national parks, including the
creation of bonds backed by park visitation fees. With the white-
capped mountains on the horizon, he portrayed environmentalism as a
conservative cause.
"What could be more conservative than conserving for ourselves and
our posterity clean air, safe water and the gifts of unspoiled
creation?" Mr. McCain, unveiling his environmenntal policy proposals,
asked crowd in a chilly white-walled barn next to a Christmas tree
farm.
Mr. McCain, who has worked to preserve land in Arizona, did not cast
his opposition to Mr. Clinton's executive order as criticism of the
goal of protecting the national forest preserve. Rather he objected
to taking the action through an executive order, even though the
president's order set off a rule-making process that includes a
period for public comment.
"The idea that Washington knows best and that local residents cannot
be trusted to do what's right in their own backyard is the epitome of
federal arrogance," he said. "The existence of this very forest
repudiates that offensive notion."
"The White Mountain National Forest exists not thanks to enlightened
federal fiat or the presumed superior foresight of the political
class in Washington," he said. "This forest was set aside nearly a
century ago thanks to the vision and energy of local residents who
demanded it. Washington would do well to keep the example in mind."
On an issue concerning another crucial primary state, he also
criticized the Clinton administration for extending offshore oil
leases along the California coast over the objections of state
officials.
The president's effort to protect forest land, from the White
Mountains to the Sierra Nevada, has drawn praise from
environmentalists, who call it one of the century's most ambitious
conservation efforts. But it has also led to opposition from timber
and mining interests and their Republican allies, who have accused
the president of bypassing Congress.
Mr. McCain's position allowed him to appeal to those opposed to the
president's action while still calling himself a conservationist. In
a sign of how he was straddling the issue, his campaign handed out
two different news releases on the speech. One geared to New
Hampshire highlighted his promise to overturn the president's
executive order. The other, for a more national audience, put more
emphasis on his support for conservation.
The Sierra Club, which has been running advertisements criticizing
Gov. George W. Bush's record on clean-air issues, praised Mr. McCain
for speaking out about environmental issues. But Dan Weiss, the
environmental group's political director, added that the senator
spoke "in favor of strong environmental protection while opposing
serious proposals to do so."
Mr. McCain also proposed measures to revitalize the nation's system
of national parks. He proposed to create capital development bonds,
backed by a part of park visitation fees, to refurbish the parks.
Under his plan the secretary of the interior would contract with
private fund-raising groups to issue the bonds.
Mr. McCain did not say how much in park fees he would devote to such
bonds. John Raidt, Mr. McCain's policy coordinator, said a study by
the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit group, had
found that the Grand Canyon could raise $100 million by issuing bonds
backed with a $2 part of its visitors fee. The fee is $20 per car or
$10 per pedestrian for a week's access.
Mr. McCain also said that $800 million recently awarded to the
federal government from a settlement over disputed Alaska oil lease
revenues should be dedicated to the parks. And he said the federal
Land and Water Conservation Fund, established in 1964, should be
fully financed up to its $900 million annual authorization, with half
the money going to a state grant program.
Mr. McCain asked Republicans and Democrats, environmentalists and
business interests to search for common ground.
"Just as politicians or industry squander credibility when we
indifferently brush aside genuine environmental threats," he said,
"some environmentalists risk becoming irrelevant when they eagerly
denounce even the most necessary reforms of failed policies as evil
conspiracies to gut environmental law."
Mr. McCain's speech was one in a series of policy addresses. As with
his health care address last week, there was some confusion about the
extent of his proposals.
Mr. McCain noted that "twice during his administration, President
Clinton has invoked executive authority to unilaterally determine the
future of millions of acres of federal land across the country."
News releases handed out by the campaign said that Mr. McCain would
repeal two executive orders issued by Mr. Clinton, apparently
referring both to the president's action on forests and his
announcement at the Grand Canyon in the 1996 presidential campaign
that he was making two million acres of the red rock country of Utah
into a national monument.
But Mr. McCain spoke of the repeal of only one executive action. He
said later in an interview that he was not pledging to overturn the
Utah designation, even though he called it a "blatant political
stunt."