That's the report about one of Obama's last Cabinet spots to fill, that Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar has the Interior job.
Interior, due to the presence and land ownership of the federal government, has traditionally gone to a Westerner, but Obama could have done far better. Yes, as director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, he funded state land conservation efforts. But, in his brief time in the Senate, or his state service before that, you never heard him mentioned as a real environmentalist. And, he certainly doesn't have an A-list record of standing up to Big Oil and Big Gas on BLM land. Yes, he did take on the government on oil shale on the Roan Plateau, but beyond that?
Overall, I'd give Salazar a B-minus on environmental issues, but that's not all that great. Given that, after violations of international law and civil rights, anti-environmentalism is one of Bush's biggest legacies, we need more than a B-minus leading Interior.
Especially on things such as getting new wilderness bills past Congress, getting BLM and the Forest Service to work with the National Park Service on things like large-scale ecosystem preservation, etc., Salazar has NOT shown any "vision."
No comments:
Post a Comment