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.[2] His proposals to sell off federal lands failed due to extensive opposition.[2] 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."[2]
After resigning from government, Watt became a lobbyist for builders seeking contracts with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).[2] 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 career
Watt was born in Lusk, Wyoming, the son of Lois Mae (née Williams) and William Gaius Watt, a lawyer and homesteader.[3][4][2]
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.[7] In 1969, Watt was appointed the deputy assistant secretary of water and power development at the Department of the Interior.[6] In 1975, Watt was appointed vice chairman of the Federal Power Commission.[6] 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".[8] 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.[9]
Secretary of the Interior
Members of President Ronald Reagan's Cabinet in 1981. Watt is in the back row, sixth from the left.
In 1980, President-elect Reagan nominated Watt as his Secretary of the Interior.[6] 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.[1] The other was Anne Gorsuch, director of the EPA at the time.[1] Environmental groups accused Watt of reducing funding for environmental programs,[10] restructuring the department to decrease federal regulatory power,[10] wanting to eliminate the Land and Water Conservation Fund which aimed at increasing the area of wildlife refuges and other protected land,[10] easing regulations of oil[10] and mining,[10][11] and recommending lease of wilderness and shore lands such as Santa Monica Bay to explore and develop oil and gas.[10] Watt resisted accepting donation of private land to be used for conservation.[12] He suggested that 80 million acres (320,000 km2) of undeveloped land in the United States all be opened for drilling and mining by 2000.[12] The area leased to coal mining quintupled during his term as Secretary of the Interior.[12] 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.[12] Watt once stated, "We will mine more, drill more, cut more timber."[13] 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.[14] 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.[14]
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."[15] 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.[16] 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.[17] "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."[18]
Beach Boys concert
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.[19][20] 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.[20] 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.[20][21] 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."[20]
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."[20] Vice President George H. W. Bush said of The Beach Boys, "They're my friends, and I like their music."[20] Watt apologized to The Beach Boys after learning that President Reagan and First LadyNancy Reagan were fans of the band.[22] Nancy Reagan apologized for Watt.[23] The White House staff gave Watt a plaster foot with a hole for his "having shot himself in the foot".[24]
Other controversies
Mad magazine listed ten Watt controversies on the back cover of their October 1982 issue, under the title "Watt... We Worry!"[25]
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."[26]
Resignation
President Ronald Reagan During a Meeting with Members of The President's Commission on Fiscal Accountability with James Watt and David Linowes in The Roosevelt Room in 1982.
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."[27]
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.[27][28][29][30]
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.[34] "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."[34]
Watt lived in Wickenburg, Arizona, in his later years.[35] He died in Arizona on May 27, 2023, at the age of 85.[3]
^"July 4: Day of Music, Parades, Fireworks", The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., July 3, 1982, p. D1.
^ abcdefPhil McCombs, "Watt Outlaws Rock Music on Mall for July 4", The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., April 6, 1983, p. A1; Phil McCombs and Richard Harrington, "Watt Sets Off Uproar with Music Ban", The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., April 7, 1983, pp. A1, A17.
