Potlatch Industries

<p>76. Gale Norton was replaced in 2006 as Secretary of the Interior by Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne, who amassed a dismal environmental record during his six years in the US Senate in the 1990s (he recorded a “0″ on the League of Conservation Voters legislative scorecards for every year except 1993). When Kempthorne was campaigning to represent Idaho in the Senate, and after he was elected in 1992, he received more than $507,000 from individuals, companies and interests in the agribusiness sector and timber industries, including wood product manufacturer Potlatch Corporation and Boise Cascade Corporation, according to campaign filings analyzed by the Center for Responsive Politics. The energy and natural resources sector provided an additional $265,000 to Kempthorne during his Senate tenure, of which 20% came from the mining industry. In the Senate, Kempthorne was chairman of a subcommittee on drinking water, fisheries and wildlife and fought to open national forests to logging, mining and oil exploration. As Governor, Kempthorne cut the state’s environmental services budget three times in two years.</p>