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Monument Man Washington Insider John Podesta’S ‘Hidden Hand’ Has Guided the Environmental Achievements of Presidents for Two Decades by Elizabeth Shogren

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Monument Man Washington Insider John Podesta’S ‘Hidden Hand’ Has Guided the Environmental Achievements of Presidents for Two Decades by Elizabeth Shogren TRANS-PACIFIC TRADE | 5 | DIVERSION ON THE GILA | 6 | SAN FRAN COYOTES | 8 High Country ForN people whoews care about the West Monument Man Washington insider John Podesta’s ‘hidden hand’ has guided the environmental achievements of presidents for two decades By Elizabeth Shogren. Page 12. MAY 25, 2015 | $5 | Vol. 47 No. 9 | www.hcn.org No. 47 | $5 Vol. 25, 2015 MAY CONTENTS Editor’s note Politics of the possible Bruce Babbitt loves to tell this story: At a White House social function in the late 1990s, Babbitt, who was Bill Clinton’s secretary of the Interior, finally got a brief moment alone with his boss. He used it to pass him a note that read: “TR: 230 million acres, WJC: ??” it was a shorthand way to compare Clinton’s public-lands conservation record with that of Theodore Roosevelt. Babbitt caught Clinton at a good time; it was the president’s second term, and he was eager to establish his legacy, and also, if possible, to divert attention from his administration’s simmering scan- dals. By the time Clinton left the White House, he had created or expanded 22 national monuments, covering some 6 million acres in the West. He did this by wielding the executive authority that TR him- self had signed into law — the 1906 Antiquities Act. That presidents enjoy using their executive authority should come as no surprise, especially when they’re facing a Congress that reflexively op- poses almost everything they do. In the past two years, Barack Obama has used his own power to John Podesta. keep immigrant families together, to sign a treaty CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES with China reducing greenhouse gases, and, yes, to create a bunch of new national monuments in the FEATURE West. Most of them, like Clinton’s, are managed by the Bureau of Land Management. When our 12 Legacy Maker new Washington, D.C., correspondent, Elizabeth Shogren, examined the striking similarities between On the cover Washington insider John Podesta’s ‘hidden hand’ has guided the conservation policies of the Clinton and Obama President Barack the environmental achievements of presidents for two decades administrations, she uncovered an important com- By Elizabeth Shogren Obama and White mon denominator: John Podesta. House counselor Monumental changes? Podesta, who served both presidents during John Podesta walk their second terms, is an incredibly influential 16 Still quiet at Canyons of the Ancients near the Washington behind-the-scenes practitioner of the power game. Monument last May. 17 Timeline: Antiquities Act: A power tool for presidents The idea of playing “three-dimensional chess” has Podesta is behind 18 many second- Controversy grazes Missouri Breaks become a political cliché, but according to Carol term conservation 26 Essay: Making a monument from scratch By John Hart Browner, Obama’s former climate czar, Podesta is a achievements for both genuine master of the art. Obama a nd Podesta was raised on the streets of Chicago Bill C linton. CURRENTS and has spent most of his life inside the Beltway, PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/ AP PHOTO and yet his most enduring legacy is likely to be out 5 Trade winds blow through the West here, in the West. (Podesta is not quite done with 6 Water for later politics; he’s currently directing Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.) In this issue, we feature 7 The Latest: Lake Mead’s water level Shogren’s profile of Podesta and give a brief his- 8 Canis Sanfranciscans tory of the Antiquities Act. We also take a look at 8 The Latest: Border Patrol and borderlands Clinton-era monuments in Colorado and Montana and a potential new one in California. One lesson is clear: Bold White House proclama- DEPARTMENTS tions don’t automatically change how these pieces Complete access of public land are managed. Conflicts over grazing to subscriber-only 3 HCN.ORG NEWS IN BRIEF or energy development or archaeological preserva- content 4 LETTERS tion tend to persist, partly because the new monu- HCN’s website ments try, and fail, to please everyone involved. But hcn.org 11 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends as John Hart’s essay on the proposed Berryessa- Digital edition 20 MARKETPLACE Snow Mountain National Monument observes, hcne.ws/digi-4709 simply calling a place a national monument some- 24 BOOKS iPhone app how opens our eyes to its natural wonders. And in hcne.ws/wuZsWu Into the Savage Country by Shannon Burke. Reviewed by Jenny Shank a world increasingly dominated by human activity, iPad app Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend by Erika T. Wurth. Reviewed by Annie Dawid that’s a worthwhile legacy for anyone. hcne.ws/NGtBYx 28 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston —Paul Larmer, executive director/publisher 2 High Country News May 25, 2015 HCN.ORG NEWS iN bRiEf Drought shrinks Sacramento Trending Delta protections Recapture California Gov. Jerry Brown in April announced Canyon verdict that a plan to transport Northern California water A federal court has south, via twin tunnels, would be accompanied found Phil Lyman, by just a third of the originally planned habitat a San Juan County protection. In doing so, he reignited a debate commissioner, and over how to allocate the water of the Sacramento- Monte Wells, a local San Joaquin Delta, which harbors one of the blogger, guilty of largest swaths of the state’s remaining wetlands conspiring to operate and is home to the federally endangered Delta off-road vehicles on smelt. The Delta also supports a $500 million public lands closed agricultural industry and supplies drinking to motorized vehicles, water for two-thirds of the state. The conflict pits and of operating Central Valley farmers and southern cities against vehicles on said Delta farmers, cities and environmentalists. lands. Two other The plan for the two Delta tunnels, first put defendants were forward almost nine years ago, originally included found not guilty. $8 billion dollars of state and federal funds The charges stem for 100,000 acres of fish and wildlife habitat from a 2014 protest restoration and protection. Brown’s new plan organized by Lyman includes 30,000 acres of habitat to be restored or in southeastern protected over five years.KATE SCHIMEL Utah’s Recapture Sandhill cranes in the Stone Lakes refuge in the northern reaches of the Delta. JUSTINE BELSON/USFWS hcne.ws/SacraDelta Canyon. JONATHAN THOMPSON You say Tesla’s powerplay GARY HARMON: Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, That would help them overcome the challenges “every time I hear 7.5 Number ofmillion acres stripped of vegetation announced May 1 his company will soon begin of potential over-generation of power during a conservative com- between 2000 and 2012 due to oil and mass production of the Powerwall, a hip, sleek the early afternoon, when demand is relatively plain about ‘private gas development (the equivalent of three home battery. Individually, the solar-charged low, and a subsequent spiking of demand, property rights,’ they Yellowstone National Parks). battery could cut homeowners’ bills. But its in the late afternoon and evening, which immediately start bigger impact would be at scale, or if its giant requires firing up natural gas plants.JONATHAN talking about their cousin, the Powerpack, gets used by utilities. THOMPSON hcne.ws/teslabattery The fraction of 2013 wheat rights to “public 13%exports that 7.5 million acres could have land.” As if the two produced. Net demand, March 31 were the same thing. I am part owner of A study recently published in the journal the Sierra Nevada Science sought to quantify ecosystem even though I live in services lost to oil and gas development. The New Mexico, just as study combined a large dataset on new wells someone from Cali- drilled throughout the study region — the fornia is part owner central U.S., including the Intermountain of the Rockies. The West — between 2000 and 2012 with wilderness I live next annual satellite measurements of plant to does not belong growth. Big as the above numbers seem, to the county I live they’re relatively small, compared to the in, even though the total landmass studied. But if current trends county commission continue for another 10 or 15 years, the loss thinks so.” of vegetation could be more consequential. SOURCE: CALIFORNIA ISO SUZI LEWIS: CALLY CARSWELL hcne.ws/OilGasImpacts “Transferring public lands would be one of the worst decisions in history. ” Photos CHARLEY WRATHER: Two tribes and coal “They are not above The Lummi and Crow Nations, 1,000 the law.” 5 miles apart, have opposite stakes in hcne.ws/RecapCanyon Number of chemicals the EPA has regulated whether a coal terminal is built off the Young football and facebook.com/ in the 40 years since Washington coast. The Crow, who sit players walk highcountrynews the Toxic Substances atop a thick coal seam in Montana, down the street Control Act was have much to gain. The Lummi, who in Lodge Grass, passed. Number live along Puget Sound, where the a small town on since 1990, when it Gateway Pacific Terminal would be the Crow lost a court case to built, fear for their fishing grounds and Reservation in regulate asbestos: zero. ancestral sites. hcne.ws/TerminalCoal southeast ELIZABETH SHOGREN Montana. hcne.ws/Udallbill DANIEL KUKLA www.hcn.org High Country News 3 lETTERS Send letters to [email protected] or Editor, HCN, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. High Country News WAGONS AROUND bAllONA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER Paul Larmer Articles about this precious Southern MANAGING EDITOR California ecosystem are always wel- Jodi Peterson come, and this one delves more deeply SENIOR EDITOR Jonathan Thompson into the complexity of Ballona than the ART DIRECTOR typical “this side versus that side” ar- Cindy Wehling ticle, which is refreshing (“The Wetland ASSOCIATE EDITOR Wars,” HCN, 5/11/15).
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