November 06, 2009 01:39 AM UTC

Sen. Michael Bennet's not so secret adviser on the environment

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• by: Ray Springfield

A recent poster on dailykos prodded citizens to urge Sen. Michael Bennet (D, CO)

to support clean energy. I found the article humorous for at least two reasons. First, Sen.Bennet already supports clean energy. The poster all but acknowledged this, but seemed to insinuate that his position wasn’t clear, or worse that he couldn’t be trusted

to support clean energy. The second reason is that the Senator’s not so secret advisor on environmental law happens to be his wife: Susan Daggett.

Susan Daggett has championed environmental law over the course of a very effective career. She has worked for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund where she won a lawsuit stopping the construction of a gold mine that was going to be constructed outside of Yellowstone National Park. The mining activity would have polluted the headwaters which feed the national park. She sits on the board of the state chapter of the Nature Conservancy. She has served in the past in an appointed capacity as a commissioner of the Denver Water Board. In 1998 Susan Daggett, an attorney with Earth justice Legal Defense Fund who litigated the case, won a case in which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reassess its plan for groundwater cleanup and endangered species protection at the Atlas uranium tailings dump in Moab. After this success, Susan Daggett returned to Washington to work for the Natural  Resources Defense Council. She later was the managing attorney with Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund, which obviously deals with protecting the environment.

I can clearly say that Senator Michael Bennet has a voice which talks to him about clean energy. That voice belongs to his wife.