Norton, Gale Ann, 1954-

<p>When President-elect George W. Bush nominated Gale Norton as secretary of the interior, he chose an able and controversial woman, experienced in both environmental issues and Republican politics.</p>

<p>Norton was born in 1954 in Wichita, Kansas, but was raised outside of Denver, Colorado. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Denver in 1975 and then completed her legal studies at the school, with honors.</p>

<p>In 1978, Norton was hired by the Mountain States Legal Foundation, an organization that has advanced such conservative causes as anti-affirmative action measures, lower taxes on oil companies, and greater public and private use of federal lands. Norton also helped the Libertarian presidential candidacy of Edward Clark in 1980. She left Colorado in 1983, becoming a scholar at Stanford University's Hoover Institute. There, she advocated solving environmental problems by means other than regulation, which businesses often find stifling. In the Reagan administration, Gale Norton served first in the Agriculture Department and then as associate solicitor at the Interior Department, where she continued to work to open protected lands to increased uses. Norton returned to private environmental practice in Colorado in 1987 and joined the conservative Independence Institute of Golden, Colorado.</p>

<p>Gale Norton was the first female Colorado Attorney General (1991-99) and the first woman to be appointed as Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior (2001-06). On behalf of Colorado and 45 other states as Colorado Attorney General, Norton helped negotiate the most extensive legal settlement in history: a $206 billion national tobacco settlement, the benefits of which continue to accrue. Gale is an exceptional role model for all women, but in particular those interested in pursuing careers in the law and public policy advocacy.</p>

<p>Norton pursued and won the suit against the Canadian mines speculator responsible for the environmental disaster at Summitville, caused by leakage of mining by-products into local waterways. She also won a significant court victory against the federal government, requiring the government to clean up hazardous waste at Rocky Flats and the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.</p>

<p>During her time as Secretary of the Interior, the U.S. faced an energy crisis, and Norton introduced and diversified new domestic energy supplies. Among other initiatives, she worked closely with Congress to enact the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which set a 10-year goal for 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy from public sources. Norton also resolved a 70-year water dispute between Colorado and California, launched her water initiative to address Western water challenges and championed the creation of two crucial Colorado conservation areas: the Great Sand Dunes National Park and the Baca National Wildlife Refuge.</p>

<p>Gale Ann Norton (born March 11, 1954) served as the 48th United States Secretary of the Interior from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. She was the first woman to hold the position. Previously, Norton had served as Colorado's Attorney General.</p>

<p>Norton was born in Wichita, Kansas, to Dale and Anna Norton. She was raised in Wichita and Thornton, Colorado, and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Denver in 1975. Norton earned her Juris Doctor degree with honors from that university's College of Law in 1978. In the late 1970s, she was a member of the Libertarian Party, and was nearly selected as its national director in 1980, before later becoming a Republican. Norton was influenced by the works of novelist Ayn Rand, and has been associated with a number of groups in the "wise use" or "free-market environmentalist" movement such as the Property and Environmental Research Center, of which she is a fellow.</p>

<p>Following her graduation from law school, Norton worked as a senior attorney at the Mountain States Legal Foundation from 1979 to 1983. Norton was a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution during 1983–1984, before taking a position at the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an assistant to Deputy Secretary Richard Edmund Lyng. From 1985 to 1990, she served as Associate Solicitor for the United States Department of the Interior, in which capacity she managed attorneys employed by the National Park Service and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.</p>

<p>Gale Norton has three decades of experience handling energy, natural resources, and environmental issues. As Secretary of the Interior, 2001-2006, she played a key role in shaping national energy policies. A member of President George W. Bush’s Cabinet, Norton was responsible for managing over 20% of the land area of the United States, a Fortune-500-sized budget, and a workforce of 70,000 employees.</p>

<p>In the face of crises including the September 11th attacks and the War on Terror, increasing domestic energy production became a major focus for Norton’s term. She oversaw lands and offshore areas that produced a third of America's domestic oil, natural gas, and coal. She was actively involved in consideration of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, offshore and onshore oil and gas production, coal mine leasing and reclamation, hydroelectric generation, as well as biomass, wind and geothermal development.</p>

<p>Norton led efforts that resolved 70-year-old interstate disputes on the Colorado River and instituted a west-wide water conservation program. She championed the President's Healthy Forest Initiative and Cooperative Conservation.</p>