News Service June 19, 2001

First Ann Richards Now Babbitt
Babbitt's About-Face

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is working with developers to clear
the way for massive development in some of California´s most wild and scenic
coastal areas, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The former Clinton administration official is working for two developers,
including the Hearst Corp., which hopes to develop tablelands surrounding
the fabled Hearst castle in San Simeon. The other project involves
development of 18 miles of mostly wild coastland just south of Big Sur.
"As a trouble-shooter for wealthy developers, Babbitt would seem to have
made a dramatic about-face from his years as an interior secretary who
reintroduced wolves to the Rocky Mountains, protected the countryside around
Yellowstone National Park from the ravages of mining and saved giant
redwoods from loggers," reporters Kenneth R. Weiss and Margaret Talev write.
"But the Hearsts say that he is helping forge an environmentally friendly
strategy that would preserve the vast majority of their ranch as open space
and represent a substantial reduction of the corporation´s previous plans
for hotels, golf courses and a dude ranch."

Mr. Babbitt declined to be interviewed for the story, the reporters said.