week of 1/15/03
 
 
 

Taylor has opportunity to reach out to adversaries
SMN
Rep. Charles Taylor’s ascendancy in Washington, D.C., continued last week as the 7-term congressman was chosen by his Republican counterparts to lead the powerful House subcommittee on Interior Department appropriations. While his appointment as one of the more powerful congressional “cardinals” will open plenty of doors for Taylor as he goes about business in D.C. and around the country, it is our hope that constituents in Western North Carolina will benefit from Taylor’s new position.

As head of the Interior Department Appropriations Subcommittee, Taylor will lead a group of congressmen who will make key decisions about our own Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests. The Department of Interior has more than 70,000 employees and has an annual budget of $19 billion. It also raises $9.4 billion from land sales and fees collected from energy, mineral, grazing, timber and recreation users. It manages 507 million acres of land, about 20 percent of the surface land in this country.

With the GOP controlling both houses of congress and the White House, it is not surprising that the conservative Taylor garnered this appointment. He is the only registered forester in Congress and still lists his occupation on his website as “tree farmer,” though banker and businessman might be more accurate.

Taylor has promised to press for more “scientific management” of natural resources. That’s a phrase used often in President Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative, so there’s little doubt that Taylor and the president hold similar feelings about the environment and natural resources.

For many in this region that is unfortunate news. Taylor’s support of road building in national forests, his reluctance to keep areas in these forests off-limits to timber companies, and his long-running support of clearing so-called “salvage” timber is out of step with the feelings of many of his constituents. He has done little to focus national attention on the serious air pollution problems here, touting scientific timber management policies while ignoring much of the scientific data about health and environmental problems associated with air quality.

Many of his actions in the Smokies have also met resistance, and the fact is that even members of his own party have been stronger proponents for helping our national park. In Tennessee, outgoing GOP Sen. Bill Thompson was an avid supporter of cleaning up our air and spoke often on the issue. Incoming Tennesseean Sen. Lamar Alexander, also a Republican, has already proposed that the $16 million Taylor set aside for North Shore Road construction — a controversial project still — be used instead to take care of backlogged maintenance needs in the Smokies.

The truth, though, is that it’s OK that Taylor and many in the environmental community disagree. Intelligent people often disagree about serious, complicated issues. But Taylor’s continued use of incendiary, condescending rhetoric toward those with different views won’t serve him well in his new role. We all remember his 1999 speech where he said many environmentalists were “nutty as a $3 bill.” Just last week he said he would continue to disagree with the “ultraliberal, radical, so-called environmental organizations ....”

In all likelihood Interior Department issues are going to take a backseat as we deal with terrorism, the Iraq situation and the economy. But as Taylor gains respect and power as a Washington insider, he could take advantage of his position to help hammer out difficult compromises among opposing groups. Although that has not been the methodology used by Taylor so far in his long political career, perhaps now would be a fine time for new start.