Nickel's Headaches

You have to understand how a moose thinks. You can't tell a moose to change his habits.

This observation was made by a Congressman opposed to a plan to open up the flatlands of Alaska's Kenai Moose Range for oil prospecting, an activity that would surely drive the moose into nearby mountains. The remark would not be very important except that it was aimed at Alaska Governor Walter Hickel, 49, who tried last summer to open the oil-rich range to the oil industry. This week Hickel, who is Richard Nixon's nominee for Secretary of the Interior, comes in for a barrage of questions when he appears for confirmation hearings before the Senate Interior Committee. He has already learned that what is true of Alaska's moose is also true of the critics who have made him a controversial Nixon appointee: You have to understand how a conservationist thinks. You can't tell a conservationist to change his habits.

Hickel's nomination has incensed the nation's conservationists, who instinctively distrust an Interior Secretary with a less than total commitment to preserve what is left of nature in the U.S. Though Hickel is a successful businessman and for the past two years has been a hard-driving and popular Governor of Alaska, he is regarded among conservationists as the archetype of a state that is impatient to tap its latent wealth. There is so much of Alaska for so few Alaskans that they have never seemed to care very much whether some of the state's 586,400 sq. mi. are despoiled in the rush to unlock its treasure chest of oil, metals, timber and fish. In that respect, Hickel, who had acquired more than $14 million in housing, hotels and natural-gas holdings before his election in 1966, is not notably different in outlook from most of his fellow Alaskans.

Looking Askance. As Secretary of the Interior, however, Hickel would be the custodian of 750 million acres of federal lands, forests and national parks--and rank as the nation's chief defender against the land-grabbing giveaways and pollution that have spoiled much of the environment in the past. Yet after his nomination in December, Hickel did not hesitate to say that he found little merit in "conservation for conservation's sake," a remark that created an even bigger furor among lovers of nature than Ronald Reagan caused when he said that seeing one redwood was to see them all. Hickel also remarked that industries might be scared away if the Interior Department's regulations against water pollution were set too high. This immediately evoked fears among conservationists that, as Interior Secretary, Hickel would be lax in enforcing standards that they already consider scandalously inadequate.

The conservationists want the Senate's Interior Committee to question Hickel closely on 14 counts. These range from a natural-gas franchise given one of his companies to charges that, while he was Governor, the state built roads for the benefit of his properties. Hickel's critics complain that he has been far too friendly with Alaska's oil operators to be given the Interior Secretary's wide regulatory powers over the entire $50 billion petroleum industry. Hickel has also alienated many Northeastern Senators by his opposition to a scheme for cutting fuel costs in New England by permitting imports of foreign oil through a free trade zone at Machiasport, Me. He has, however, promised to re-examine his stand on that one.

Then, too, Hickel's critics look askance at the Governor's fight against a ruling by outgoing Interior Secretary Stewart Udall blocking title to 262 million acres of federal rangeland that Alaska had earmarked as its own as part of a 1958 statehood land grant. Udall has insisted on holding the ranges in escrow until there is a settlement of claims by Alaska's 55,000 Indians, Aleuts and Eskimos, who argue that the land was originally theirs. Oil companies covet leases to 58 million of the disputed acres that are part of the Arctic North Slope field, the largest known pool of oil in the U.S. (reserves estimated at well over 5 billion bbl.). After Nixon named him to the Cabinet, Hickel promised: "What Udall can do by executive order, I can undo."

Some Heat. Many influential conservation groups, among them the Sierra Club, are waiting to learn more of Hickel's views before taking a stand on his appointment. So are conservationist members of the Senate Interior Committee: Democrats Walter Mondale of Minnesota, William Proxmire and Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, South Dakota's George McGovern and Lee Metcalf of Montana.

There is little likelihood that the Senate will refuse to confirm Hickel when it interrogates him. In U.S. history, only eight Cabinet nominees have been turned down, and Senators have never rejected an incoming President's first choices. Still, Hickel can look forward to some heat. "It'll be good for him," said a member of Nixon's staff. "The trouble with Wally," said another Nixon man, "is that he's never thought about a thing but Alaska." If nothing more, the Senate's hearings should considerably expand Hickel's perspectives.

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