Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/799197
ByHolbrookMohr and Mitch Weiss The Associated Press Many conservation groups say U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gor- such is too conservative and too much like the man he would replace, the late Jus- tice Antonin Scalia, to be considered a friend of the environment. But when it comes to Gorsuch's judicial record on issues like pollution and en- vironmental regulation, he can't be painted as someone who always finds in favor of businesses, according to an Associated Press review of his rulings. "I'm willing to, for now, stipulate, as we like to say, that he's going to come at these things neutral and if he doesn't think an agen- cy's interpretation is credi- ble he's going to say so," said Pat Parenteau, a professor at Vermont Law School. "Sometimes that's going to cut in favor of the environ- ment and sometimes it's go- ing to cut against the envi- ronment and I don't know how much of that concern actually weighs into his de- cision making." As a judge for the Den- ver-based 10th U.S. Cir- cuit Court of Appeals, Gor- such has ruled both for and against causes that environ- mentalists hold dear. He voted in 2015 to up- hold a Colorado law that requires 20 percent of elec- tricity sold to consumers in the state come from renew- able sources. In 2010, Gorsuch sided with the Environmental Protection Agency when a magnesium company chal- lenged the EPA's new inter- pretation of a rule regulat- ing byproducts created by mining in Utah. The com- pany said the byproducts were exempt under a pre- vious interpretation, but Gorsuch said that interpre- tation was "at best" tenta- tive, so the agency was free to issue a new one. But Gorsuch has also ruled against the EPA, as in a 2010 case in which the court found that the agency was wrong to clas- sify land in New Mexico as Indian country when a company sought to obtain a mining permit. If the land, which was not on a reserva- tion, were classified as In- dian country, the company would have needed to ob- tain a permit from the EPA rather than the state. In another case, which reached his court in 2015, he showed frustration at the pace of an environmen- tal case. The lawsuit was filed in 1990 by landowners near the federally owned Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant northwest of Denver. The plant was originally oper- ated under a government contract by Dow Chemical Company and later Rock- well International Corpo- ration. Federal authorities raided the facility in 1989, finding years of haphaz- ard handling of plutonium waste in the manufacture of triggers for atomic bombs. Property values crashed, and nearby landowners sued. Gorsuch wrote that after the "titanic fifteen years" it took to reach a trial, the landowners had won more than $900 million in dam- ages and interest based on a federal law, a verdict that was thrown out on appeal. The landowners then ar- gued that once the federal law was out of consider- ation, the companies were liable under Colorado state law. "This long lingering liti- gation deserves to find reso- lution soon," Gorsuch wrote for his panel that sent the case back to a lower court to be handled "promptly" in favor of the landowners. The plant contractors settled for $375 million, to be split among thousands of property owners. "He follows the law," said Merrill Davidoff, the land- owners' attorney. "And in this case the law favored the plaintiffs — the land- owners — not the govern- ment or the government contractors." An attorney for the com- panies did not respond to messages. Patrick Gallagher, the le- gal director of the Sierra Club, said Gorsuch would try to limit conservation groups' access to the courts, which the judge has shown a willingness to do when organizations have sought to be heard in some cases involving the use of public lands. "His limited record, and I have to stress it is very limited, supports our posi- tion that he would limit ac- cess to the courts," Galla- gher said. SUPREME COURT NOMINEE Gorsuch's environment record: Neither a clear friend or foe By Nick Perry The Associated Press WELLINGTON,NEWZEALAND It's one thing to talk about changing allegiance to an- other country when a new president is elected. It's an- other thing to go ahead and do it. But that's exactly what seems to be happening, at least in one distant corner of the world. In New Zealand, the number of Americans who applied for a grant of citi- zenship rose by 70 percent in the 12 weeks following the election of President Donald Trump when com- pared to the same period a year earlier, immigration records obtained by The As- sociated Press show. Figures also show the number of Americans who obtained a New Zealand work visa in January was up 18 percent from a year earlier, as was the number of Americans who visited the country. In New Zealand, a grant of citizenship is the path- way for people without a family connection. Among those Americans with a New Zealand parent, citi- zenship applications after the election were up 11 per- cent from a year earlier. In response to an AP free- dom of information request, New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs said that in the two days after the U.S. election in November, the number of Americans who visited its website to find out about citizenship was up more than tenfold from the same two week- days a month earlier. To be sure, the total num- ber of Americans applying for New Zealand citizenship remains relatively low. The country is more than 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) from the mainland U.S. and is perhaps best known for its majestic landscapes. Farming remains central to the economy, with sheep outnumbering the 4.8 mil- lion people by about six to one. Trump made a brief ref- erence to the country dur- ing the election campaign when a New Zealand tele- vision reporter asked him what the election would mean for the South Pacific country. "Say hello to Bob Charles. I love Bob Charles," Trump replied. "Do you know who Bob Charles is? Your great- est golfer." Charles won the British Open in 1963. Some Americans living in New Zealand say their friendsandfamilyhavebeen asking them about moving there since the election. Alanna Irving, 33, a tech- nology startup entrepre- neur from San Francisco, moved to New Zealand six years ago and has since married a kiwi, as the lo- cals are known. "It's an extremely livable place and you can see and palpably feel the difference in how society is organized, and what people prioritize," she said. "New Zealand is a place that cares about equality, I think more. It's less individualistic, more community-minded." She said that a friend of a friend was so disturbed by the outcome of the elec- tion that he immediately jumped on a plane and flew to New Zealand to check it out as a possible place to live. Irving said his visit exceeded his expectations. "So that was really sym- bolic to me that there were people in the United States who feel like things are go- ing in a very different direc- tion than they want for their future, or for their children, and they're looking to New Zealand as perhaps an al- ternative," she said. Most Americans who ap- ply for New Zealand citizen- ship must first live in the country for five years. Cameron Pritchard, an immigration consultant at Malcolm Pacific Immigra- tion in Wellington, said the increase in citizenship ap- plications could be a result of people wanting to feel more settled in their ad- opted country, given the un- certain nature of the world. It's about "getting a bit more security or really making a longer-term de- cision that New Zealand is the place they want to call home," he said. He said his company no- ticed a big spike in inqui- ries from the U.S. during the election. DISTANT CORNER OF THE WORLD US applications for New Zealand citizenship jump 70 percent SUSANWALSH—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch and former New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte wait for a meeting with Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. on Capitol Hill in Washington. NICK PERRY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Alanna Irving, who is originally from San Francisco and who moved to New Zealand six years ago, poses in Wellington, New Zealand. Paid advertisement WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2017 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 3 B