Who is James G. Watt? Former Secretary of the Interior dies at 85 – James Gaius Watt, an American lawyer and civil servant who served as Secretary of the Interior of the United States from 1981 to 1983, died at the age of 85. Watt was born on the 31st of January, 1938, and died on the 27th of May, 2023.
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On Thursday, June 8, 2023, his son Eric Watt confirmed his death by text message. Eric did not specify a cause of death, nor did he explain why his father’s death was not announced sooner.
Watt’s stint as Secretary of the Interior was contentious, owing to his perceived antipathy toward environmentalism.
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He allowed oil and gas drilling in nearly all of America’s coastal seas, expanded access to coal on federal lands, and relaxed strip-mining prohibitions.
His proposals to sell off federal lands were met with widespread criticism.
In 1983, he resigned after controversially remarking that a panel reviewing his coal-leasing policies had “every kind of mixture — I have a Black. I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple.”
He later worked as a lobbyist for builders seeking contracts with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
His high school sweetheart Leilani Bomgardner, whom he married in 1957, and their two children Erin Watt and Eric Watt survive him.
Source: abtc.ng
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