Transition talk: Ken you dig it?

Green groups divided over choice of Salazar to head Interior 15

Ken Salazar. Photo: David Zalubowski / AP

Ken Salazar.

Ken Salazar, Obama’s choice to head the Department of the Interior, is provoking controversy in the environmental community.  Many activists, particularly among grassroots conservation groups in the West, are criticizing the pick, while some industry interests and big, mainstream green groups are praising Salazar.

The opponents have been the most outspoken so far.

Jon Marvel, executive director of the Western Watersheds Project, called the appointment “a travesty” and said Salazar “will completely undermine Obama’s message of change. He will not bring change to the public lands of the western United States.”

“The Department of the Interior desperately needs a strong, forward-looking, reform-minded secretary,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement yesterday. “Unfortunately, Ken Salazar is not that man. He endorsed George Bush’s selection of Gale Norton as secretary of interior, the very woman who initiated and encouraged the scandals that have rocked the Department of the Interior. Virtually all of the misdeeds described in [this week’s] Inspector General exposé occurred during the tenure of the person Ken Salazar advocated for the position he is now seeking.”

The CBD’s release continues, “While Salazar has promoted some good environmental actions and fought against off-road-vehicle abuse, his overall record is decidedly mixed, and is especially weak in the arenas most important to the next secretary of the interior: protecting scientific integrity, combating global warming, reforming energy development, and protecting endangered species.”

The group notes that Salazar has voted against raising fuel-economy standards for automobiles and repealing tax breaks for oil companies, and voted for offshore oil drilling along Florida’s coast and subsidies for ranchers who use public lands.  (More on Salazar’s Senate voting record on environmental issues here.) CBD also notes that Salazar threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the listing of the black-tailed prairie dog as endangered when he was attorney general of Colorado.

“Ken Salazar does not bring the change we need at Interior,” said Nicole Rosmarino, the wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians. “Salazar will not take strong stances on behalf of science and environmental protection and is not up to the task of undoing the enormous damage the Bush administration has done to public lands, endangered species, and the credibility of the Department of the Interior over the last eight years.”

Others are upset that Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D), who had been a favorite among enviros, was not selected.

“We’ve seen [Grijalva’s] record—that’s very strong in regard to public lands and endangered species,” Oregon Wild spokesperson Sean Stevens told NPR. “And I don’t think we have the same sort of confidence in Ken Salazar. Hopefully we can grow to have that confidence.”

But Salazar also has his supporters.

“Throughout his career, Sen. Salazar has campaigned on a pledge of support for ‘our land, our water, our people.’ With a perfect 100 percent score on the 2008 LCV Scorecard, he has lived up to that pledge,” said League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski in a statement. “As a westerner, Sen. Salazar has hands-on experience with land and water issues, and will restore the Department of the Interior’s role as the steward of America’s public resources. We look forward to working with him to protect the health of America’s land, water, and people in the coming years.”

Mike Matz, executive director of the Campaign for America’s Wilderness, also applauded the pick: “As a farmer, a rancher, and a conservationist, Sen. Salazar understands the importance of balancing traditional uses of our public lands with the need to protect them. His knowledge of land management issues in the West, coupled with his ability to work with diverse groups and coalitions to find common ground, will serve him well at the Department of the Interior.”

National Wildlife Federation President and CEO Larry Schweiger also offered praise for Salazar. “He’s fought to protect Western lands from costly, destructive oil-shale production. He also took on the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management over oil and gas leasing on the Roan Plateau in northwest Colorado,” said Schweiger. “And as a former water-rights and mining lawyer and former director of Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources, Sen. Salazar brings an experienced perspective to needed mining reform.”

At the same time, mining interests seem pleased with the Salazar pick too. “I first heard it Monday and was excited because I have worked with him when I used to live in Colorado. I know that he’s fair and balanced,” Laura Skaer, executive director of the Northwest Mining Association, told NPR.

BP America Chair and President Robert Malone also expressed approval for the Salazar selection, saying he thinks Salazar would be open minded, Reuters reports.

Kate Sheppard is Grist’s political reporter.

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  1. Pompey Road Posted 9:39 am
    17 Dec 2008

    MTR:Well looks like 4 to 8 more years of Mountain Top Removal. This is a corporate hack and Appalacha is not considered part of the interior to him.

    The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

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  2. davedenali Posted 9:49 am
    17 Dec 2008

    Two ObservationsTwo observations.  First, Salazar's LCV score is 100 percent for this year and 85 percent for this session of Congress.  Second, as a Democratic senator, unless someone produces 8 by 10 glossies of him in the airport stall with Larry Craig or proves some contibutor built him a new house in Girdwood, he is going to be the next Secretary of the Interior.  Which suggests to me that it would be good to have the best possible relationship with him and work constructively.

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  3. randino Posted 10:18 am
    17 Dec 2008

    Big Green vs Little Green? The response to Ken Salazar reveals the divisions in environmentalism that we saw in the last Democratic administration. Divisions that were masterfully described by Mark Dowie in his book Losing Ground where he described the environmental politics around such proposals of the Clinton administration as NAFTA.
    The people in the report above who seem to be fulsome in praise of Salazar are almost all from the Big Greens.
    Big Green groups, centered in state capitols and inside the beltway, live in a different universe and have different priorities than say for instance a local forest group fighting controlled burning in a state forest, or a group centered in a small town in Appalachia fighting MTR coal mining. Above all they are masters of real politik. Recently, for instance, Ohio's LCV hired as a new executive director a former state rep who sponsored a bill last year to open up state parks and forests to oil and gas drilling. A proposal that caused many of the Little Greens of Ohio to go postal. It was fortunately beat back, but I think it illustrates the differences between the two.
    Environmental unity was easy when we all had the boot of the Bush administration on our necks. We are all glad that Obama won, but everything else is up to debate.
    The various responses to Obama's green team, are tea leaves that may show the shape of the environmental politics during the Obama administration. As Betty Davis said in All About Eve "Hold onto your hats everyone, it is going to be an interesting night!"
    Randy Cunningham

    Cleveland, OH

    Randy Cunningham

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  4. TheAK Posted 1:48 pm
    17 Dec 2008

    What a sorry pick for a sorry agencyDid you hear that coal stocks went up on the news?
    He wouldn't even support Lieberman-Warner, with the 75% giveaway in polluter credits.  He's supported coal-to-liquids, carbon sequestration, gasified coal, and is terrible on uranium mining.
    The extractive industries are quiet happy I'm sure.
    I'm so disappointed about the selection it's making me feel ill.  

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  5. TheAK Posted 1:49 pm
    17 Dec 2008

    Thanks for this commentI couldn't agree more.

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  6. TheAK Posted 1:51 pm
    17 Dec 2008

    The problem with panderingIs that we are so close to edge of destroying the last of our clean water; so close to runaway climate change; so close to peak oil; and natural gas is depleting.
    WAKE UP AND SMELL THE PLANET.
    I'm tired of the politics of sucking up, and that's what Big Green does best.

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  7. randino Posted 9:12 pm
    17 Dec 2008

    I hope Dowie's book is not out of print.I think Losing Ground might be a very good book to put on your holiday vacation reading list, because it focuses on environmental politics during the last Democratic administration. There are a lot of things that are different, but a lot that remains the same - especially given Obama's dependance on so many veterans of the Clinton administration.
    Randy Cunningham

    Cleveland, OH

    Randy Cunningham

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  8. wendigo Posted 3:34 am
    18 Dec 2008

    Good PickI think Salazar is a good selection for head of DOI.  From a conservation point of view, I don't think we could have realistically expected better.
    We're never going to get a head of DOI that is completely green...it's just not going to happen, since part of the mandate of DOI includes mining and energy development.
    I'm a former constituent of Salazar.  Even got to meet and talk with him once when he was AG.  My impression of him was that he's smart and thinks before he speaks or acts.  He also opposed drilling on the Roan Plateau, was against "logging for water", helped protect in-stream flows for the Gunnison through the Black Canyon, recovered enough money from a bankrupt (and morally bankrupt) mining company to clean up the Summitville mining disaster, and created an environmental crimes unit under the office of the AG.
    My take is that, as head of DOI, he'll be similar to Bruce Babbitt regarding conservation issues.  So he may not be perfect, but he'll be a hell of a lot better than what we've had over the last 8 years.

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  9. zenduck Posted 6:11 am
    18 Dec 2008

    Hooray for the Radical Center I'd make another distinction between the supporters and opponents of the Salazar appointment - the opponents all seem to be knee-jerk opponents of the human cultural and historical presence on Western public lands.  I think of them as Eco-Calvinists trying to save "pristine" nature from "fallen" humanity.  Both concepts are fallacious.  They're still fighting the tired old range wars of the 90s.  Thankfully, a growing number of conservationists throughout the West are reaching out to ranchers and farmers and others who live on, from, and with the land and discovering they have a lot in common and can get a lot more done together than they can separately.  Ken Salazar knows this first hand, as a farmer and as an advocate.  I can't think of a better advocate for a truly sustainable West.

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  10. zenduck Posted 6:15 am
    18 Dec 2008

    one more thing...On the other hand, the Vilsack appointment is a disaster.

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  11. randino Posted 8:20 am
    18 Dec 2008

    Does anyone know what his politics are regarding the forest service?? That has me wondering, since the tree hugger tribe is where I reside.
    Randy Cunningham

    Cleveland, OH

    Randy Cunningham

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  12. texasjenny Posted 8:51 am
    18 Dec 2008

    Departmental responsibilitiesWhen are we going to get a Department of the Environment, like other countries have? "Cabinet-level" administrator doesn't have the same clout as Secretary of the Environment. There could then be some serious reorganization to make the departments' responsibilities correspond to today's realities. If it weren't considered just a regulatory agency, the Department of the Environment (former EPA + NOAA, NRCS, etc.) could more easily weigh in on things like energy generation, sustainable agriculture, and GMOs.

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  13. wendigo Posted 9:01 am
    18 Dec 2008

    Randy......Salazar has been on the pro-conservation side of forest issues in Colorado.  But he won't have input to U.S. Forest Service decisions, since USFS is part of USDA, not DOI.

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  14. elbow Posted 11:32 pm
    22 Dec 2008

    East Coast vs Intermountain WestLet's face it--most of the devastating environmental impact in our country is coming from West of the Mississippi--not to discount MTR in Appalachia, but there's a lot more land out here to be ruined.  The fact is that a lot of that land is used by miners and ranchers.  We need someone who can work with those interests and balance it out. It never fails to irk me when non-locals or city dwellers think they know what's best for people in rural areas.  You've got to take into account local interests, culture and economy in making sustainable decisions. This has been proved around the world.  Salazar may not be a perfect "Dwell"er but he has cred with traditional interests in the west.  He will know how to build bridges instead of just pissing folks off.

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  15. gferren Posted 3:04 pm
    14 Jan 2009

    babbitt/norton/kempthorne/salazarTo see what these folks have been up to since 1998...http://gferren.150m.com

    Inside the BLM Whistle Blower & related links
    Anyone interested? Since 1999, the BLM has changed it's administration #'s total (was 264 million surface acres, now they claim only 258 million). What has happened to (6) million acres of your public lands since 1999?
    Glenn Ferren

    Former BLM Montana Computer Specialist

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