James G. Watt

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James Gaius Watt (January 31, 1938 – May 27, 2023) was an American lawyer, lobbyist, and civil servant who served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior in the Ronald Reagan administration from 1981 to 1983. He was described as "anti-environmentalist" and was one of Ronald Reagan's most controversial cabinet appointments.<ref name="GRIST_2004-06-11">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

His tenure as Secretary of the Interior was controversial primarily because he was perceived as hostile to environmentalism. Watt opened up nearly all of America's coastal waters to oil and gas drilling, widened access to coal on federal lands, and eased restrictions on strip-mining.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> His proposals to sell off federal lands failed due to extensive opposition.<ref name=":0" /> In 1983, he resigned after controversially remarking that a panel reviewing his coal-leasing policies had "every kind of mixture—I have a Black. I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple."<ref name=":0" />

After resigning from government, Watt became a lobbyist for builders seeking contracts with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).<ref name=":0" /> In 1995, he was indicted on 18 counts of felony perjury and obstruction of justice for making false statements before a federal grand jury investigating influence peddling at HUD. The following year, he was sentenced to five years' probation.

Early life and careerEdit

Watt was born in Lusk, Wyoming, the son of Lois Mae (née Williams) and William Gaius Watt, a lawyer and homesteader.<ref name="Langer">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name=":0" />

Watt attended the University of Wyoming, earning a bachelor's degree in 1960 and a juris doctor degree in 1962.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

CareerEdit

Watt's first political job was as an aide to Republican Party Senator Milward L. Simpson of Wyoming, whom he met through Simpson's son, Alan.<ref name="miller">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

A lifelong Republican, he served as Secretary to the right-leaning Natural Resources Committee and Environmental Pollution Advisory Panel of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1969, Watt was appointed the deputy assistant secretary of water and power development at the Department of the Interior.<ref name=miller/> In 1975, Watt was appointed vice chairman of the Federal Power Commission.<ref name=miller/>

In 1977, Watt became the first president and chief legal officer of Mountain States Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm "dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government and economic freedom".<ref>Mountain States Legal Foundation</ref> A number of attorneys who worked for Watt at the firm later became high-ranking officers of the federal government, including Ann Veneman and Gale Norton.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

U.S. Secretary of the InteriorEdit

File:1981 US Cabinet.jpg

President Ronald Reagan and his Cabinet in 1981, including Watt (back row, sixth from the left)

File:President Ronald Reagan during a meeting with members of the President's Commission on Fiscal Accountability.jpg

President Reagan (center) during a meeting with members of the President's Commission on Fiscal Accountability, including Watt (left) and David Linowes (right), in the Roosevelt Room in 1982

In 1980, President-elect Reagan nominated Watt as his Secretary of the Interior.<ref name=miller/> The United States Senate subsequently confirmed the nomination. Greg Wetstone, the chief environment counsel at the House Energy and Commerce Committee during the Reagan administration, who subsequently served as director of advocacy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, argued that Watt was one of the two most "intensely controversial and blatantly anti-environmental political appointees" in American history.<ref name="GRIST_2004-06-11"/> The other was Anne Gorsuch, director of the EPA at the time.<ref name="GRIST_2004-06-11"/> Environmental groups accused Watt of reducing funding for environmental programs,<ref name="ee">James G. Watt Summary Review and Analysis</ref> restructuring the department to decrease federal regulatory power,<ref name="ee"/> wanting to eliminate the Land and Water Conservation Fund which aimed at increasing the area of wildlife refuges and other protected land,<ref name="ee"/> easing regulations of oil<ref name="ee"/> and mining,<ref name="ee"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and recommending lease of wilderness and shore lands such as Santa Monica Bay to explore and develop oil and gas.<ref name="ee"/> Watt resisted accepting donation of private land to be used for conservation.<ref name="time1983">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Watt proposed that 80 million acres (320,000 km²) of undeveloped land in the United States all be opened for drilling and mining by 2000.<ref name="time1983"/> The area leased to coal mining quintupled during his term as Secretary of the Interior.<ref name="time1983"/> Watt boasted that he leased "a billion acres" (4 million km²) of coastal waters, even though only a small portion of that area would ever be drilled.<ref name="time1983"/> Watt once stated, "We will mine more, drill more, cut more timber."<ref name=millerquote>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to the Center for Biological Diversity, Watt had the record, among those who served as Secretary of the Interior, of listing the fewest species protected under the Endangered Species Act.<ref name=ewire/> The record was later surpassed by Dirk Kempthorne, a George W. Bush appointee, who had not listed a single species in the 15-month period since his confirmation.<ref name=ewire>Kempthorne Wins 2007 Rubber Dodo Award : Protects Fewer Species Than Any Interior Secretary in History Template:Webarchive</ref>

Watt periodically mentioned his Dispensationalist Christian faith when discussing his method of environmental management. Speaking before Congress, he once said, "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns, whatever it is we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> One apocryphal quotation attributed to Watt is: "After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back." Glenn Scherer, writing for Grist magazine, erroneously attributed this remark to 1981 testimony by Watt before Congress.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Journalist Bill Moyers, relying on the Grist article, also attributed the comment to Watt. After it was discovered that the alleged quotation did not exist, Grist corrected the error, and Moyers apologized.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> "I never said it. Never believed it. Never even thought it," Watt later wrote of the statement. "I know no Christian who believes or preaches such error. The Bible commands conservation—that we as Christians be careful stewards of the land and resources entrusted to us by the Creator."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Beach Boys concertEdit

From 1980 through 1982, The Beach Boys and The Grass Roots separately performed at Independence Day concerts at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., attracting large crowds.<ref>"July 4: Day of Music, Parades, Fireworks", The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., July 3, 1982, p. D1.</ref><ref name="McCombs">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In April 1983, Watt banned the concerts, asserting that "rock bands" who had performed on the Mall on Independence Day in 1981 and 1982 had encouraged drug use and alcoholism and had attracted "the wrong element", who would subsequently rob attendees of similar events.<ref name="McCombs" /> Watt then announced that Las Vegas singer Wayne Newton, a friend and an endorser of President Reagan and a contributor to the Republican Party, would perform at the Independence Day celebration at the mall in 1983.<ref name="McCombs" /><ref>Campaign contributions of Wayne Newton Template:Webarchive in website of NEWSMEAT Template:Webarchive by Polity Media, Inc. Retrieved January 29, 2010.</ref> During the ensuing controversy, Rob Grill, lead singer of The Grass Roots, stated that he felt "highly insulted" by Watt's remarks, which he termed "nothing but un-American."<ref name="McCombs" />

The Beach Boys stated that the Soviet Union, which had invited them to perform in Leningrad in 1978, "obviously ... did not feel the group attracted the wrong element."<ref name="McCombs" /> Vice President George H. W. Bush said of The Beach Boys, "They're my friends, and I like their music."<ref name="McCombs" /> Watt apologized to The Beach Boys after learning that President Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan were fans of the band.<ref name="Gettysburg">Template:Cite news</ref> Nancy Reagan apologized for Watt.<ref>"The Beach Boys Bio" Template:Webarchive in website of yuddy.com Template:Webarchive by Yuddy, LLC. Retrieved January 29, 2010.</ref> The White House staff gave Watt a plaster foot with a hole for his "having shot himself in the foot".<ref name="Eagle">Template:Cite news</ref>

Other controversiesEdit

In early 1982, Congress voted to cite Watt in contempt due to refusing to hand over documents.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Mad magazine listed ten Watt controversies on the back cover of their October 1982 issue, under the title "Watt... We Worry!"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In an interview with the Satellite Program Network, Watt said, "If you want an example of the failure of socialism, don't go to Russia, come to America and go to the Indian reservations."<ref name=nyt1983>"Watt Sees Reservations As Failure of Socialism", The New York Times, January 19, 1983. Retrieved on May 29, 2010.</ref>

ResignationEdit

A controversy erupted after a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in September 1983, when Watt mocked affirmative action with his description of a department coal leasing panel: "I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent."<ref name="bart">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Within three weeks of making this statement, on October 9, 1983, he announced his resignation at deputy undersecretary Thomas J. Barrack's ranch, near President Reagan's Rancho del Cielo.<ref name="bart"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Later lifeEdit

After leaving the Department of the Interior in 1983, Watt lobbied the Department of Housing and Urban Development.<ref name=wyobit>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ten years later in 1995, Watt was indicted on 18 counts of felony perjury and obstruction of justice and accused of making false statements before a federal grand jury investigating influence peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development at that time.<ref>Crimes Against Nature : Rolling Stone Template:Webarchive (p. 3 Template:Dead link Template:Cbignore)</ref> On January 2, 1996, Watt pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of withholding documents. On March 12, 1996, he was sentenced to five years' probation and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 and perform 500 hours of community service.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In a 2001 interview with The Denver Post, Watt applauded the energy policy of the George W. Bush administration, stating that it was just what he recommended in the early 1980s: "You've got to have more oil, you've got to have more coal, you've got to have more of everything," Watt said.<ref name="denver"/> "You've got to have more conservation too, but ... solar energy and wind energy—they're just teeny infant portions [of energy]. You're not going to run the world with solar energy by the year 2001, or 2002, or 2010."<ref name="denver">"Watt applauds Bush energy strategy". The Denver Post, May 16, 2001.</ref>

In his later years, Watt lived in Wickenburg, Arizona.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

DeathEdit

Watt died on May 27, 2023, in Arizona, at the age of 85.<ref name = Langer/>

Personal lifeEdit

Watt was a talented athlete, class valedictorian and prom king at his high school; he married his prom queen, Leilani Bomgardner, in 1957, when he was 19. They had two children. <ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/06/08/james-watt-interior-secretary-dead/</ref> Watt was a member of the Assemblies of God USA.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>