Salazar at the Interior Department: So Much at Stake

I welcome the news that President-elect Obama has appointed Senator Ken Salazar at the Secretary of the Interior. After years of corruption and corporate dominance at the Interior Department, we desperately need to change the way America's national parks, public lands and wildlife are managed. Salazar must usher in that change, because so much is at stake.

As Secretary of the Interior, Salazar will oversee not only the Bureau of Land Management, but also the National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This is our entire natural heritage. And when it comes to wilderness and threatened species, bad actions are irreparable.

Last year, I flew over the Roan Plateau, one of the most biologically diverse areas in Colorado. The plateau rises 3,500 feet above the Colorado River Valley, and from the plane I could see its green expanses of rolling shrubs and thriving aspen stands -- home to cougars, black bears, and golden eagles.

But once the plane veered off the plateau, the land was scarred with drill pads, pipelines, and waste dumps. The contrast was startling, yet this same fate could befall the Roan Plateau: The Bureau of Land Management announced its decision to allow oil and gas drilling in the area. NRDC is fighting those plans.

But even if the Roan Plateau wins a reprieve, thousands of other polluting energy projects marched ahead in the last eight years. Just today, NRDC Trustee Robert Redford gave a press conference about NRDC's lawsuit to block a final Bush attempt to give away pristine public lands in Utah. This is what Salazar has to change or wild places like the Roan Plateau will be lost forever.

Salazar's own connection to the land gives me hope. Salazar is a fifth-generation Coloradan who grew up on a cattle and alfalfa ranch without running water or electricity. His home was is in the stunning San Luis Valley, where rich ranching and farming land is banked by the wild San Juan and Sangre de Cristo mountain ranges.

As a senator, Salazar supported his state's efforts to limit the impacts to groundwater from the heavily polluting process of in-situ uranium mining and taken often lonely stands against oil shale. Still, the challenges before Salazar are great, and he will need to be a forceful leader for change.

Salazar Must Restore Balance to Managing America's Lands

Thanks to the infamous Cheney Energy Task Force, the Bush administration made energy development the top priority for public lands. It directed agencies like the BLM to abandon the Congressional mandate of "multiple use" for public lands, which for over 30 years has required that energy development be balanced against other values such as recreation and environmental protection.

The approach was summed up by Tom Gnojek, a BLM employee in Price, Utah, who was quoted in the LA Times as saying, "If [a landscape] is not wanted by the oil and gas industry or the ORV [off-road vehicle] industry, we can protect it."

Salazar must put an end to industry getting first dibs at land owned by the American people. All parties need a seat at the table when land management plans are made, and conservationist values need to be restored to their rightful place in the decision-making process.

Salazar Must Restore Ethical Conduct

A rash of crooked deeds has plagued the Interior Department for several years. Some involve seedy instances of Mineral Management employees doling out cocaine and sex. Others point to a more systemic crisis. Just this week, the department's inspector general informed Congress that on 15 occasions political appointees within the Interior Department willfully disregarded agency scientists and chose to weaken protections for endangered species even when the data called for the opposite.

Salazar has to send a powerful signal that the era of unethical behavior and unchecked industry influence is over. This will be challenging. The Bush administration has been hurriedly embedding its political appointees into staff positions at the BLM and other agencies.

But Salazar can combat it in two ways. First, he can tap people to run the Interior agencies who come directly from the fields of conservation, land management, or government stewardship. Second, he can establish a culture in which independent scientific data is the final litmus test for all agency decisions.

This post originally appeared on NRDC's Switchboard blog.

Comments

[GeorgeP922]

When will you folks wake up to reality?

Obama is a political genius, obviously he saw Salazar as a far bigger threat in the Senate than he is in the Interior Department.

If you don't think Salazar is good for Interior Dept, then donate/raise money for primary challenges to DINO's like Salazar who have no problem stopping the Democratic Senate agenda dead in it's tracks when an issue threatens their precious in state image.

Obama's choise of Salazar for Interior is a VERY shrewd political mood, and for that I want to kiss him.

One more point on this, do you think it is coincidence that just as Salazar was announced, Evan Bayh announced his new DLC/BD delegation to triangulate with Republicans against the DNC.

My guess is that either Bayh did it in revenge to Obama for not including him in the cabinet, or to try and solidfy the DLC in the Senate before they lost one of the members to cabinet appointment.

In the end what we can hope for is Obama is really popular and sucessful and is able to drop most of his original cabinet members (whom wont have elected office to return to).

In the end, we just might have more retired DLC members, and a more united Democratic party.

[UncommonSenz]

Sheessh... some people are not happy unless they have their tinfoil hats on and whip themselves into a frenzy about how everything is some part of a grand conspiracy.

Unlike you, I will actually judge him on how he handles the office... not by some hyper-partisan litmus test applied before he even has one day in office.

[PhatP]

If you really think this guy was a possible good choice for Secretary of the Interior you might really enjoy hunting with Dick Cheney.
Salazar is not only the same type of person who's been running the Bush environment but he may actually be worse. This guy is a rancher and hunter and he views the environment on how much it's worth in economic terms rather than for its own sake. How much money and death can be accumulated from the land?
That is how this guy thinks. Mr Cowboy looks at animals through the same economic and capitalist ways that Bush/Cheney does. And...I'll bet my vegan meals that he will do the same and whatever is best for cattle ranchers and big oil that MS McPalin would have done. His line of work reduces animals to nothing more than mere property to be used and abused for gain, profit and the lust for blood. That is what he gets from shooting animals and denying endangered species protection. Anyone who is a supporter of Safari Club International will never be about change and compassion and liberal, progressive values. This appointment is the biggest slap in the face so far by Obama to his supporters. After all those speeches about Bush/Cheney being wrong on the environment he goes and appoints a good ol fashioned right-wing, animal killer who will open up even more Federal land for hunting than Bush/Cheney did.
Sad sad times.

[lj9283]

Here's an interesting quote from a speech he made on the Senate Floor in 2005: "I think it is our duty as elected officials in Washington to fight to commit the federal government to recognize some of America"s pristine lands as "off limits" to development. There are lands in our nation with pristine value we should protect: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of them. It is a refuge from encroachment and a symbol of our restraint and our optimism for the future. ....It is my hope that we can demonstrate to the American public our commitment to future generations through protecting pristine lands. We owe it to our children as a compact to the generations beyond."
While Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, he authored the Great Outdoors Colorado Amendment, which created a massive land conservation program of which he became chairman.
While CO AG he created the Environmental Crimes Unit.
He had a legal private practice 1981-86 and 1994-98 specializing in water, public land laws, and the environment.
And it does give the Democrats in Colorado the opportunity for a more progressive appointed replacement who can then run with the advantage of incumbency in the next election.

[dubster]

Excellent rebuttal to PhatP's diatribe. I too like the selection of Senator Salazar for interior secretary - he by no means will emulate republican platform stances on the environment and interior issues.

[WhiteDelyte]

Salazar gives you hope, but he is going to drag you along like a rag doll.
Somehow he has created an image of a friend to the left. Good Luck.