Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar (D) has been chosen to serve as secretary of interior, rounding out the energy and environment team formally introduced by President-elect Barack Obama on Monday afternoon. The Obama camp has not officially announced the pick, but transition officials have confirmed it.
Salazar has served in the Senate since 2005, where he has been a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Agriculture Committee. He has vocally opposed Bush administration moves to open up land in Colorado and other Western states to oil-shale development.
Salazar was raised on a ranch in Colorado, and farmed for 30 years. He and his wife also owned several small businesses, including a Dairy Queen and radio stations. Before entering politics, he was a private-sector attorney focusing on water and environmental law, and from 1987 to 1994 he was chief legal counsel to Colorado Gov. Roy Romer (D) and executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. From 1999 to 2005, Salazar was the attorney general of Colorado. His predecessor as state AG, Gale Norton, was Bush’s first secretary of the interior.
Salazar got a score of 85 percent from the League of Conservation Voters for the 110th Congress, and has an 81 percent lifetime score.
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AbigailB Posted 3:25 am
16 Dec 2008
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GonzoDon Posted 4:03 am
16 Dec 2008
Moreover, in the context of natural-resource management, I'm not sure if the moderate/conservative label is so applicable. As noted, he has deep family roots in the West going back to pre-1776, clearly cares about the land in a way that Gale Norton and Dirk Kempthorne wouldn't understand (Gale built a career out of fighting regulations limiting private uses of public lands -- talk about a wolf guarding the henhouse!), and Ken understands agricultural life and knows how to talk credibly with the ag community. Which is crucial for building consensus solutions in the Interior West.
It ain't a revolutionary appointment, but it's a step in a positive direction. Plus, this opens up Ken's Senate seat to some other up-and-coming Colorado Dem -- personally, I vote for the young, bright, and almost painfully ethical & hardworking Andrew Romanoff, former (term-limited) Speaker of the House.
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mtvyfan Posted 4:22 am
16 Dec 2008
I really hope President Obama ditches Michael Taylor from his ag team. I am very concerned about Taylor being involved due to his pro-biotech stand, hell he pretty much is responsible for us eating untested and unregulated GMOs in our food system. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house!
I really hope that President Obama picks a FARMER to run the USDA like my Senator Jon Tester, the only organic farmer currently in our Senate. Why President Obama doesn't have Senator Tester on his ag transition guidance panel, I have no idea, but he should be listening to him.
"For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I too abide, to dispel the misery of the world." - Shantideva
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guade00 Posted 4:29 am
16 Dec 2008
He seems like on OK guy, though.
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jfranke Posted 7:55 pm
16 Dec 2008
Statement on Salazar Appointment by the Center for Biological Diversity)
December 16, 2008
Contact Kieran Suckling , executive director, (520) 275-5960
Ken Salazar a Disappointing Choice for Secretary of the Interior
Stronger, More Scientifically-Based Leadership Needed to Fix
Crisis-Plagued Agency
Strong rumors are circulating that President-elect Barack Obama has
selected Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) as the new Secretary of the Interior.
As the overseer of the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land
Management, the Mineral Management Services, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, and the Endangered Species Act, the Secretary of the Interior
is most important position in the protection of America's lands, waters,
and endangered species.
The Department of the Interior has been rocked by scandals during the
Bush Administration, most revolving around corrupt bureaucrats
overturning and squelching agency scientists as they attempted to
protect endangered species and natural resources from exploitation by
developers, loggers, and oil and gas development. Just yesterday, the
Interior Department Inspector General issued another in a string of
reports http://wyden.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=305942& ...
finding that top Department officials systematically violated laws and
regulations in order to avoid or eliminate environmental protections.
"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,
"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
Interior. Virtually all of the misdeeds described in yesterday's
Inspector General expose occurred during the tenure of the person Ken
Salazar advocated for the position he is now seeking."
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. Salazar
- voted against increased fuel efficiency standards for the U.S.
automobile fleet
voted to allow offshore oil drilling along Florida's coast
voted to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to ignore global warming
impacts in their water development projects
voted against the repeal of tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil
voted to support subsidies to ranchers and other users of public
forest and range lands
- Threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when its
scientists determined the black-tailed prairie dog may be endangered
"Obama's choices for Secretary of Energy and his Climate Change Czar
indicate a determined willingness to take on global warming," said
Suckling. "That team will be weakened by the addition of Ken Salazar
who has fought against federal action on global warming, against higher
fuel efficiency standards, and for increased oil drilling and oil
subsidies."
In addition to his misstep on Norton, Salazar endorsed the elevation of
William Myers III to the federal bench. Myers was a former Interior
Department Solicitor and lobbyist for the ranching industry. Senator
Leahy called him "the most anti-environmental candidate for the bench I
have seen in 37 years in the Senate." Bizarrely, Salazar praised Myers'
"outstanding legal reasoning" regarding endangered species, Indian
affairs, federal lands and water, timber, and fish and wildlife issues.
The American Bar Association rated Meyers as "not qualified." Salazar
later supported Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General, introducing him
at his Senate confirmation hearing.
"One of the most important jobs of the Secretary of the Interior is to
help pick dozens of critically important political appointees to oversee
America's conservation system. His past misjudgments of Norton, Meyers
and Gonzales give us little confidence he will choose wisely in the
future.
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tmullins Posted 11:00 pm
16 Dec 2008
Hannity shut the fuck up !
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usandthem Posted 2:29 am
17 Dec 2008
I am becoming more and more disappointed by Obama's choices for key positions in his cabinet.I am told that he has to use people who are experienced,or more center than right or left.I am trying to believe that,but I see more and more people who are not fit for those positions,in my opinion.They are people who are too close to the debacles of the past administration,or who have supported bush's position,or who have vested interest in their own interests rather than the interest of this country and it's people.Thanks again jfranke.
Why not ask why!?
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