Gulf Oil Spill: Ken Salazar Faces Calls For His Resignation

Is Ken Salazar the next head to roll, as a result of the gulf oil disaster? Last week, Elizabeth Birnbaum quit under pressure as head of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, the agency that oversees offshore oil drilling, but critics are now turning their ire on the Interior Secretary himself.

Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, called Birnbaum's ouster "a scapegoat firing". "A drastic overhaul of not just MMS, but the Department of the Interior is needed to make sure that the catastrophic regulatory failures that fueled the Gulf drilling disaster are not repeated," he wrote in a statement.

Thirty-six environmental groups have signed a letter calling on Obama to send Salazar packing. "The intervening 16 months, unfortunately, have confirmed that Mr. Salazar will not fulfill your administration's promises to safeguard the environment in this country or globally," the letter states. "Rather, Mr. Salazar has either embraced or failed to reform many of the destructive policies of the previous administration."

"How does he still have a job?" asks columnist David Sirota. "Ironically, two of the people who have been most integrally involved in destroying the Gulf Coast live in Colorado -- 'Heckuva Job [Michael Brown] Brownie', and 'Heckuva Job Kennie Salazar'."

Comments

[pcds]

07:54 PM on 06/05/2010

ken salazar must be fired.

[husker01]

10:45 PM on 05/31/2010

Not only is the Gulf now in ruins, but there is a rush to build the Ruby Pipeline,
and get rid of the wild horses.

Many Americans have asked, begged Obama to replace Salazar for what he
is doing regarding the wild mustangs/ burros. Obama has no comment.

doesn't he get his orders from Abbey and Obama?

Salazar stated prior to being S.O.I. that he does not believe the wild horses belong
on the range.
So the taxpayers are currently paying at least $7500 a day to feed the Calico herd
in pens. So far a total of 2 million for that roundup!! With this budget, how
do they permit this?
so far they have managed to kill over 140 Calico horses since January.

The way the BLM gets more funds from the appr. bill, they threaten to send the mustangs to slaughter, then they get more funds, and they go round up more horses.
This is managing the wild horses and burros?

We must continue to call the White House number and request Salazar be replaced.
( AND.. put the Mustangs back on the range.)!!
The BLM has no clue how to manage horses, let alone manage land.
They haven't done justice to the mustangs since the inception of the W.H.&B act of 1971. The past head of BLM admitted BLM sends horses to slaughter.

We got CHANGE alright... Be careful What we Ask for!!

[LiberalDem]

09:46 AM on 06/01/2010

In addition to this, Salazar has done nothing to protect the wolves. He's stood by as attempts to extipate wolves move forward in the West.

I'd love to know the inside story of how this jerk got the Interior Dept. job.

[johnjohn1234]

06:22 PM on 05/31/2010

Boycott BP. Don't buy their gas or their junk food and soon they will have a pretty good reason to get this fixed PDQ.

[horsedrag]

05:21 PM on 05/31/2010

They were here first the oceans their only boundaries. They prepared the land for us, but when we came we hunted them almost to extinction. Some escaped to Europe and mankind learned to partner with them. 500 years ago they came back in the bellies of ships, only the strong survived, the rest thrown overboard. They helped build this country, plowing fields, moving people and goods. Two million were sent to war, two hundred came back. They rounded up the cattle, rodeo'ed, stared in movies, fed our dogs and to thank them we gave them some badlands with little water. They survived and represent American grit and freedom. Now one man, the head of the BLM with oversight of the Gulf oil spill is rounding them up. Dose he really have time for our Mustangs? How ironic, the very oil that replaced horses is running out. Our desperation to get is is apparent and comes at the cost of other life forms. Will we have a future with no oil, horses, sea life, or will he plow our fields and feed the multitudes? CONGRESS return our Mustangs to the land designated to them in the 1971 law. Every Mustang removed, gelded, penned, and slaughtered is an abomination to our freedom and future. Mr. President, replace Salazar.

[Eyeful]

03:36 PM on 05/31/2010

Secretary of the Interior is a job that is simply TOO BIG TO FAIL.

1. Salazar supported GW Bush's nomination of Gale Norton to Secretary of the Interior.

2. Salazar generated controversy by introducing Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales and sitting by his side during Gonzales' confirmation hearings.

3. In 2005, Salazar voted AGAINST increasing fuel-efficiency standards (CAFE) for cars and trucks. In the same year, Salazar voted against an amendment to repeal tax breaks for ExxonMobil and other major petroleum companies.

4. Ken Salazar supported fellow Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman in his primary race against Ned Lamont in Connecticut.

5. In 2006, Salazar voted to end protections that limit offshore oil drilling in Florida's Gulf Coast.

6. In 2007, Salazar was one of only a handful of Democrats to vote AGAINST a bill that would require the US Army Corps of Engineers to consider global warming when planning water projects.

7. May 9, 2009, Salazar announced the upholding of a Bush-era policy that prevents the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions via the Endangered Species Act.

8. As Secretary of the Interior, Salazar is in charge of the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States Geological Survey, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and many other federal agencies overseen by the Interior Department, most importantly the MMS (Minerals Management Service), the agency who forged safety documents on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig for BP/Halliburton/Transocean.

[drummer510]

03:08 AM on 06/01/2010

What is the matter with him?, does he have a brain? does he have a pulse? He can do America a favor, by excusing himself. Oh, that would take a gentleman.

[Randjamz]

11:48 AM on 05/31/2010

Sure, It's easy to point the finger at Salazar;but who is the real culprit of this spill,BP and Halliburton are the one's that got into an argument about the protocol of the Deep Horizon!
Is Secretary Ken Salazar guilty of that;I don't honestly think so;I think that it's too soon to be blaming anyone from the Obama Administration just yet! The environmental groups have a right to be angry(Hell,I signed petitions at most of those groups websites and I am mad about this)but let's not rush to judgement and throw the baby out with the bathwater!!! "RJM"

[TxAggie]

09:06 AM on 05/31/2010

It must be uncomfortable having so many boots on one's neck.

[drummer510]

03:08 AM on 06/01/2010

good one!!

[Vegasyankee]

08:50 AM on 05/31/2010

Hmmm, Salazar is Obama's hand picked boy, now the Dems want him canned? My bet is that he goes nowhere and Obama stands behind him. Obama needs his oil smart people around him so he can continue to profit.

The Obama admin. has lent 2 billion dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met last Spring with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. The oil in the Tupi field has already been promised to much of China.

George Sorso New York-based hedge-fund firm, Soros Fund Management LLC, sold 22 million U.S.-listed common shares of Petrobras, as the Brazilian oil company is known, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Soros bought 5.8 million of the company’s U.S.-traded preferred shares prior to the loan.

[lemonyashes]

07:59 AM on 05/31/2010

What does this BP spill and how it's being handled say about US or us?

[lemonyashes]

07:54 AM on 05/31/2010

Ken salazar is weak, he's a Bush yes man.

[TxAggie]

09:03 AM on 05/31/2010

He is Obama's boy -he has no link to W whatsoever.

[bascombe]

03:55 AM on 05/31/2010

ken should be fired for what he did not do - fire the bo0shistas!

[afgail]

03:30 AM on 05/31/2010

By all means fire Salazar NOW. He is part of the oil company toady culture and has been for most of his political career. He was an enabler of the rot at the core of the MM&S.

[TxAggie]

09:04 AM on 05/31/2010

He doesn't have a damn thing to do with the oil industry- he is just incompetent.

[afgail]

03:24 AM on 05/31/2010

In the North Sea, Great Britain requires that oil companies have to drill pressure relief wells simultaneously with the main well. Just in case of a blow out, as in the Gulf of Mexico, they can fix the problem immediately. And they have been requiring simultaneous drilling of relief wells for over 20 years!!!! The Brits found a solution decades ago. It's prevention. But our regulatory agencies are worthless. Actually, worse than worthless, they are guilty of depraved indifference.

[dnweindeb]

02:50 AM on 06/16/2010

And also, as I understand it, many years ago the Brits forbade the use of one of the dispersants BP was using because of its dangerous toxicity.

[esquilax]

03:15 AM on 05/31/2010

The divided and disfunctional USA can be traced back to the decision to allow Corporations to be treated as "people" under the law.

The public good, the national good, the environment; all sacrificed at the alter of the Corporation psychopath.

[lemonyashes]

07:55 AM on 05/31/2010

it's what you get is pschopathy when you believe a non-entity is an entity.

[ellwort]

03:06 AM on 05/31/2010

Same old -
"Why does he still have a job?" asks Sirota. Indeed, why did any of the corporate agents provocateurs still have jobs as late as Feb 1, 2009? What? Did DK Goodwin really sell that Team of Saboteurs (or whatever) bullshit fantasyland as a useful handle? Really? Now? Without too much effort, you could run through the list of saboteurs (starting with the Saboteur of Staff, RE), couldn't you?
SOS: Same old -
And - keep swimming - we're just in the middle: http://lumpinprollie.blogspot.com/