| Donald P. Hodel | |
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| In office November 5, 1982 – February 7, 1985 |
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| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | James B. Edwards |
| Succeeded by | John S. Herrington |
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| In office February 8, 1985 – January 20, 1989 |
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| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | William P. Clark, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Manuel Lujan Jr. |
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| Born | May 23, 1935 Portland, Oregon |
| Political party | Republican |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Religion | Lutheran |
Donald Paul Hodel (born May 23, 1935) is a former United States Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Interior, and Chairman of the company FreeEats.com/ccAdvertising, which has had a controversial role disseminating push polls for the Economic Freedom Fund. He was known during his tenure as Secretary of the Interior for his controversial "Hodel Policy," which stated that disused dirt roads and footpaths could be considered right-of-ways under RS 2477.
Hodel attended Harvard University. He married Barbara Beecher Stockman who was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She married Hodel in her senior year. They moved to Oregon after graduation, where they had two sons and Mrs. Hodel became a full-time mom. Following the suicide of their oldest son, Mrs. Hodel became active in church and various other Christian ministries as a speaker at evangelistic meetings and prayer breakfasts. The Hodels have appeared on Focus on the Family broadcasts with Dr. James Dobson, encouraging families who have lost loved ones to suicide.
In August 2007, Mrs. Hodel fell down the stairs of her Colorado home and was airlifted via Flight for Life to St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver. In late October, she moved to Craig Hospital for rehabilitation. Mrs. Hodel remains mostly paralyzed from the neck down.
Government career
Hodel served as United States Secretary of Energy from 1982 to 1985, and the Secretary of the Interior from 1985 to 1989 under President Ronald Reagan.
Critics disrupted his efforts to impose a new management policy on a large amount of federal land, and blocked his efforts to create vast new wilderness areas. In spite of these criticisms, the Reagan Administration Secretaries added over two million acres (8,000 km²) to the national wilderness system. The Hodel policy was continued under Manuel Lujan Jr. (1989-93) in the Bush Administration. It was finally rescinded in 1997 by Secretary Bruce Babbitt.
In an article, Hodel wrote, "Throughout President Reagan's eight years, his secretaries of the Interior pursued these objectives within the framework of his and their conviction that America could have both an improving environment and an adequate energy supply. We did not and do not have to choose between them, as some have contended. . . ."
While secretary, Hodel proposed to undertake a study on the removal of the O'Shaugnessy Dam in Yosemite National Park, and the restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley, a smaller, but inundated version of Yosemite Valley. Senator Dianne Feinstein, former mayor of San Francisco, which owns the dam, however, opposed the study and had it quashed.
In March 1984, the Navajo Nation requested that the Secretary of the Interior, who was then William Clark, make a reasonable adjustment of the coal lease royalty rate paid by Peabody Coal, now Peabody Energy. In July 1985, newly appointed Hodel, secretly met ex parte with Peabody’s representative (“a former aide and friend of Secretary Hodel.”). Then after very briefly reviewing the merits of the proposals, Hodel approved lease amendments with royalty rates well below the rate that had previously been determined appropriate by those agencies responsible for monitoring the federal government’s relations with Native Americans. In 2007, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit determined that these actions by Hodel breached the government's duty of trust to the Nation and established a "cognizable money-mandating claim" against the government under the Indian Tucker Act (The Navajo Nation v United States, No. 2006-5059, USCA Fed. Cir., September 13, 2007 [1]).
Post-Government Career
Hodel moved to Colorado where he engaged in the energy consulting business, and served on various charitable and corporate boards of directors. He later served as President of Christian Coalition, a nonprofit conservative group, from 1997 to 1999.
From May, 2003, until March, 2005, Hodel served as President and CEO of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit evangelical Christian organization. He had stated that his job was to manage the transition from the founder, Dr. James Dobson, to his successor. Hodel had, several years prior to being named President, served on its board. He remains on the Board of Directors.
In 2006, his company FreeEats.com/ccAdvertising was found to be disseminating political push polls on behalf of the Economic Freedom Fund organized by Bob J. Perry. After being sued by the Attorney General of the State of Indiana, the company countersued, claiming its freedom of speech was being squelched.
External links
| Preceded by James B. Edwards |
United States Secretary of Energy 1982–1985 |
Succeeded by John S. Herrington |
| Preceded by William Patrick Clark |
United States Secretary of the Interior 1985–1989 |
Succeeded by Manuel Lujan Jr. |
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