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Environmentalists Wary of Obama’s Interior Pick
WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead the Interior Department, Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado, will inherit an agency demoralized by years of scandal, political interference and mismanagement.
President-elect Barack Obama with choice to lead the Interior Department, Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado during a news conference in Chicago on Wednesday. (Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times)
He must deal with the sharp tension between those who seek to exploit public lands for energy, minerals and recreation and those who want to preserve the lands. He will be expected to restore scientific integrity to a department where it has repeatedly been compromised. He will be responsible for ending the department's coziness with the industries it regulates. And he will have to work hard to overcome skepticism among many environmentalists about his views on resource and wildlife issues.
One senior Interior Department executive described the job Mr. Salazar has been chosen for as "the booby prize of the Cabinet."
As Mr. Obama introduced Mr. Salazar and Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor tapped to be secretary of agriculture, at a press conference Wednesday in Chicago, he said their responsibility would be to balance the protection of farms and public lands against the need to find new sources of energy.
"It's time for a new kind of leadership in Washington that's committed to using our lands in a responsible way to benefit all our families," Mr. Obama said. "That means ensuring that even as we are promoting development where it makes sense, we are also fulfilling our obligation to protect our national treasures."
Mr. Salazar, wearing his customary ten-gallon hat and string tie, said that his job entails helping the nation address climate change through a "moon shot" on energy independence. But that would include not just the development of "green" energy sources like wind power, but also the continued domestic development of coal, oil and natural gas, fossil fuels that generate greenhouse gases when they are burned.
Environmental advocates offered mixed reviews of Mr. Salazar, 53, a first-term Democratic senator who served as head of Colorado's natural resources department and as the state's attorney general. Mr. Salazar was not the first choice of environmentalists, who openly pushed the appointment of Representative Raul Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, who has a strong record as a conservationist.
Oil and mining interests praised Mr. Salazar's performance as a state official and as a senator, saying that he was not doctrinaire about the use of public lands. "Nothing in his record suggests he's an ideologue," said Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association. "Here's a man who understands the issues, is open-minded and can see at least two sides of an issue."
Mr. Popovich noted approvingly that Mr. Salazar had tried to engineer a deal in the Senate allowing mining companies and others to reclaim abandoned mines without fear of lawsuits. (The legislation is pending.) He has also supported robust research on technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-burning power plants, something the coal industry favors.
He also backed a compromise that would let oil companies drill for natural gas in limited parts of the Roan Plateau in northwestern Colorado, a plan that most environmental advocates opposed.
Mr. Salazar is a fifth-generation Coloradan who grew up on a ranch near the New Mexico border. He has been a farmer, lawyer and small-business man as well as a public servant.
Pam Kiely, program director at Environment Colorado, said Mr. Salazar had been a champion of wilderness protection and of strong water quality laws, and had raised questions about the environmental costs of oil shale development, a subject of great controversy in the Mountain West. She said he had not spoken out forcefully against oil and gas development in millions of acres of national forests and roadless areas.
"We hope he continues to play a role in insuring that, as we develop our mineral rights in these incredibly sensitive areas, we require industry to put in place safeguards that protect our health, environment, water and air quality," Ms. Kiely said.
Marc Smith, executive director of the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, said in a statement that Mr. Salazar understood that energy security can be achieved only by making use of all domestic energy sources, including those found on and under public lands.
"We are pleased that the president-elect has chosen someone who understands that there is a direct connection between federal lands and access to affordable, clean natural gas," Mr. Smith said.
While industry officials praised his moderation, Mr. Salazar drew harsh criticism from some environmentalists.
"He is a right-of-center Democrat who often favors industry and big agriculture in battles over global warming, fuel efficiency and endangered species," said Kieran Suckling, executive director of Center for Biological Diversity, which tracks endangered species and habitat issues. "He is very unlikely to bring significant change to the scandal-plagued Department of Interior. It's a very disappointing choice for a presidency which promised visionary change."
Daniel R. Patterson, a former Interior official who is now southwest regional director of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an advocacy group, said that Mr. Salazar has justifiably become the most controversial of Mr. Obama's cabinet appointees.
"Salazar has a disturbingly weak conservation record, particularly on energy development, global warming, endangered wildlife and protecting scientific integrity," said Mr. Patterson, who was elected last month to the Arizona House of Representatives from Tucson and who supports fellow Arizonan Mr. Grijalva for the Interior job. "It's no surprise oil and gas, mining, agribusiness and other polluting industries that have dominated Interior are supporting rancher Salazar - he's their friend."
Even as Mr. Salazar navigates the department's tricky political cross-currents, he must also deal with significant internal management challenges. Members of Congress and outside groups are calling for review of dozens of decisions made under the Bush administration on endangered species and oil and gas leasing. The senior management ranks of the department have been depleted by departures of demoralized career employees.
And the agency's computer systems are badly in need of repair, after millions of dollars have been spent on systems that have not worked, according to several internal reports.
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32 Comments so far
Show AllMore bleeping cowboy hats and string ties?
Anyone wearing a cowboy hat in public is still living in the Howdy Doody Hour.
The cowboy look (hat, string tie, boots, Western drawl) will no doubt please the hell out the outgoing Bush junta. And that seems a fairly high priority for Obama.
You must have a job indoors...
A cowboy hat is efficient for keeping the sun, wind, and rain off your face...
Beyond that, it is a regional cultural thing just as rediculous as any other fashion...
Very true, but a gentleman removes his hat when he's inside.
Salazar is a Lieberman Democrat. A disgrace, a total sellout. One of the worst of the worst. Colorado deserves better, and so does America.
He supported the 'fracture' drilling industry on the western slope, which has poisoned water supplies for many thousands of rural people.
He voted 'Yes' on the FISA bill.
This guy needs to be kept away from Washington at all costs.
The Obama White House is proving to be K Street Adjacent.
I was truly hoping that Obama would fulfill at least some of his campaign promises. This appointment and that of Arne Duncan to head Education show that Obama has completely abandoned the positions that put him into office.
I'm embarrassed that I voted for the asshole.
q
Me Too
Vilsack is a Farm Bureau Democrat. As a legislator he joined Republicans in writing Iowa's notorious hog factory bill, HF 519. Vilsack wrote the nuisance lawsuit protection section to exempt livestock factories from normal nuisance lawsuits. He voted for the bill, unlike the vast majority of Iowa Democrats, and the bill won by 1 vote. He then received the endorsement of long time corporate farming advocate, the Farm Bureau. Before he left office he was better on some of these issues, however.
In 2002, reviewing a letter to the editor I wrote endorsing the Green candidate for Governor, I noted that I could find no difference in the farm policies advocated in campaign literature by Vilsack and his Republican opponent (Gross). Both strongly favored promoting biotechnology.
I believe that Vilsack's philosophy is summed up in "Iowa 2010: The New Face of Iowa," which called for Iowa to become the "life sciences capital of the world" by 2010, and called for Iowa wages to rise up to "average." While the life sciences section gave lip service to organic farming, the clear, (if destructive, arrogant and futile,) goal was to build a bigger agribusiness complex than other states and countries. The report relied on other reports from consultants. Likely it was a cookie cutter imitation of similar reports across the midwest and across the nation.
Volume II of Iowa 2010 clearly documented that the strongest public input in hearings for the report was against subsidization of and special privileges for the agribusiness industrial complex. Comments strongly supported sustainable family farming.
I don't believe Vilsack understands organic farming as an advanced paradigm. Like so many of the old school, he likely thinks that industrial agriculture is more advanced than pre-industrial farming, and thinks that there are no other viable paradigms, except, of course, for small niches. He's seen enough facts, (what Thomas Kuhn called the "anomalies" in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) perhaps, but lacks the framework to organize them into a powerful new reconciliation. As with so many in conventional agriculture today, Vilsack supports mega-industrialism (mega-modernism). And of course, the power complex, (what Lewis Mumford called megatechnics, megamachines) is an incredibly powerful kind of technology, capable of creating wonders of the world, along with oppression, war and the other horsemen of the apocalypse. Unfortunately it tends not to be fully reality oriented, (with biotechnology being unscientific or violating the science of ecology, for example). It could not create a healthy neighborhood, Mumford argued in his testimony before congress in The Urban Prospect. Likewise it cannot create a sustainable agriculture, failing in terms of economy, ecology, community and technology.
And of course, we're seeing a massive failure of megatechnology and megamodernism snowballing all around us. It is, Mumford argued, an "authoritarian technics," destined to exploit us. And yet, Mumford concluded, in the last line of The Myth of the Machine: The Pentagon of Power: "But for those of us who have thrown off the myth of the machine, the next move is ours: for the gates of the technocratic prison will open automatically, despite their rusty ancient hinges, as soon as we choose to walk out." And that is just what sustainable agriculture has been doing. Withdrawing from the system and creating an alternative.
Obama may have been just naive enough to inspire the electorate and win the election. Now he fully faces the Bush legacy, even as huge numbers of the electorate still remain largely mystified by it. I suspect Vilsack is viewed as a safe choice, one who can work closely with Iowa Senator and Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin. Harkin will surely have a huge impact on Vilsack and on Obama. We must do the necessary political work now and through the next four years, improving our knowledge of the issues (rejecting the "safety net" and green subsidy smokescreens) and our skills for having an impact (rejecting symbolic sign holding/marching/demonstrations for pragmatic organizing (actual group negotiations with the actual politicians and administrators who actually make the actual decisions, to be a bit redundant).
Ok, it's Vilsack. He's your basic compromising, not terribly bright, Democrat. He's not the worst possible choice. He'll need to be told what to do. He's wrong headed, but he can be influenced.
Ok, we've got work to do, as we knew we would.
How many times do Obama supporters need to get raped before realizing the honeymoon is over?
This cabinet is really turning out to be pathetic. All the picks are getting high marks from conservatives and industry officials! Well, many of us saw it coming. So much for "change we can believe in."
Never mind his voting record, his history or that ridiculous outfit.
None of that matters.
So don't be scared.
He'll be following the "vision" that Obama sets for him.
That's the line they've been feeding progressives in an attempt to pacify us about Geithner, Voelcker, Gates etc.
Okay, I'll play along.
Quick question though...
Am I allowed to be concerned about Obama's agenda?
This guy is walking cliche who is out of touch with reality, judging simply by the photo. I'm saddened a man like that has been given this much power in my government.
...Just a small interjection. You can't always judge simply from a photo. Jim Hightower, who would have been a much superior candidate for the job, often wears a cowboy hat.
He wears the Cowboy Hat because his constituents wear them, it politics, and in the Western U.S. all of society, and especially politics, is a "dog and pony show".
The real concern is the huge land grab that should be expected in the upcoming months and years. From T. Boone Pickens and his Wife's "Save the Wild Horses", a veiled land grab, to many others that have been carry overs from the Bush administration.
Perhaps there may be enough Americans who are intelligent enough to realize that nothing is actually going to "change" until the "money people" are taken out of the equation. And then make the painful necessary moves to actually "change things".
If Mr. Obama, the "champion for change", the living proof that if a Black man can become president things have changed, if he serves any purpose it just may be to be living proof that , "no matter how things change, they stay the same".
"it just may be to be living proof that , "no matter how things change, they stay the same"..."
This is true - however, change can also be for the worse. We dodged that one.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
I saw the newsclip of Obama with the Cowboy while I was exercising and couldn't hear the t.v.
I swear I thought it was Jed Clampett.
Oooohhh Doggie!
HA HA!! That was awesome!
Jed Clampett, ha, ha, ha.
"Now he needs to pick one of those south Florida crackers...."
Since we're throwing around racial slurs, maybe he should pick a South Florida Spic instead, or maybe a Illinois Spear Chucker?
Bill Richardson thinks cockfighting and canned hunting is a-ok.
He is as big an asshole as the rest. Maybe worse.
Its just as Nader said. You dont ask for anything, he wont give anything.
All those Obama lovers had their heads up their asses.
They thought: gee, Bush was so right wing that obama is clearly the opposite(he's black! how could he not be?). He'll go in the opposite direction or we should just be glad he governs from the middle.
He's right wing all the way.
"He is a right-of-center Democrat"
What does "right-of-center Democrat" mean? The New Chimp Times is trying to confuse the public with totally irrelevant gunk. First of all the Demok party has no ideology. Demoks only do simple arithmetic to maximize their mammon. This racket requires zero ideology. Second, the political center in Washington refers to the center of the extreme right gutter. A pile of kaka doesn't need compartmentalizing. It's just one pile of kaka and that's it. Nowhere in that pile is anything like social democracy found. So why would you place any credibility in the New Chimp Times spewing such gunk? I suggest reading socialist media if you want real news.
Really. What sort of a jerk wears his hat indoors? And at a press conference. I'm pretty sure Jim Hightower has the civility to take his hat off when he goes inside.
Don't bet on it. It's a regional custom. But is it also an age related concern, that older folks believe it's proper to take off your hat?
Do enlightened Common Dreams readers make fun of all forms of dress worldwide. "Hey look at those funny Arabs with rags on their heads" The cowboy hat in the west means something. It is a piece of cultural identity. I can't believe that you would judge a book by its cover. I live in the west and have experienced oil and gas development in all its ugly glory. If Salazar can weed out the 20% of irresponsible developers my quality of life will improve dramatically. Do you want to live in a cold cave with no light? I don't. neogeo
It's not the hat that bothers me, it's the spurs digging into Obama's shins I'm worried about.
Appalachia is a toxic third world waste dump America www.wisecountyissues.com It's a moonscape, our water is toxic, our mountains are gone, we have third rate standards of health care and our schools are so old and outdated they can't even power up the latest technology our kids deserve ! Greed, deception and fraud have become THE AMERICAN WAY !
In 2006 Senator Obama voted to confirm Dirk Kempthorne -- who had received an overall score of zero from the League of Conservation Voters -- as Secretary of the Interior.
That was just one of many profits-before-people votes cast by Senator Obama. I posted a comparison of the candidates' voting record in these forums several times during the Democratic primary campaign, pointing out that Obama's voting record was far to the right of Senator Clinton's voting record.
Besides the environment, other issues on which Obama voted with the Republicans included tort "reform," a credit card interest-rate cap, the Dick Cheney energy bill, "free" trade, combat troop withdrawal from Iraq, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
But, the hate-spitting Obama fans shouted that his voting record didn't matter. Only his campaign rhetoric mattered, they said. And, I was a *%#! for talking about his voting record.
Now we have pro-polluter Salazar heading Interior, and Monsanto-shill Vilsack heading Agriculture.
Obama had always been one of the most right-wing Democrats in the Senate (ranking 43rd overall), and his Cabinet appointments now reflect that. Not one progressive in the bunch.