During President Obama’s speech to the nation on Tuesday, regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a few of his officials were mentioned by name: Admiral Thad Allen, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar.
However, the appointment of Ken Salazar to the Interior was controversial from the beginning. Salazar’s reputation on wildlife protection was a major problem. As a rancher and former Colorado Senator, Salazar also served as Attorney General and he threatened to sue the state--if black-tailed prairie dogs were listed as a threatened species for protection under the ESA.
Ranchers hate prairie dogs, although biologically, they are a vitally important keystone species to the eco-systems of the Great Plains and grasslands of America.
Last year, Salazar signed off on the delisting of gray wolves, before their numbers were genetically sustainable in the wild. Since that delisting, over 400 wolves have been slaughtered.
To date, Salazar has a worse record on listing species for protection under the ESA, than former Interior Secretary under Bush, Dick Kempthorne.
Currently, there are over 300 species waiting to be considered for protection. Many have languished on the list for decades.
Salazar’s words don’t line up with his actions. He says that climate change, fueled by decades of increased C02 in the atmosphere, is a crisis, but all the while, he has quietly allowed leases for coal-powered plants to flourish in parts of Wyoming and Montana. Coal is one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases.
In addition to Salazar’s dismal record on wildlife conservation, the secretary’s handling of the Mineral Management Services (MMS) reform has been under heavy criticism. The failure of MMS to regulate safety procedures, while cozying up to oil industry executives, has been considered partially to blame for the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon on April 20, killing 11 people, and launching the world’s worst environmental disaster.
“This MMS is so corrupt it’d be hopeless to expect to it to provide any meaningful environmental regulation that does anything but give offshore projects the green light,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, disputing the effectiveness of dividing MMS into three departments. It does not eliminate the close ties that MMS has had with the oil industry for decades.
Suckling feels that environmental regulation should be handled by experts, like the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Center filed a legal petition on Tuesday, to the White House requiring Salazar to explain how drilling operations evaded the mandates of the National Environmental Policy Act.
“Two months later, we have yet to see real reform of the flawed process that ushered in this horrific oil spill,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It seems obvious to everyone, except perhaps those who are in charge, that the lax environmental oversight of Big Oil must end.”
A letter, spearheaded by WildEarth Guardians, and signed by hundreds of conservationists and scientists, has been sent to the White House, calling for Ken Salazar’s resignation.
“Mr. Salazar’s failure to clean up Interior is why we’re seeing the mess in the Gulf. We need serious mopping up within this department, and it should start with Salazar leaving,” said Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians.
The environmentalist’s letter describes details of how Salazar has failed to live up to his tough talk of being the “new sheriff in town”. He has been totally ineffectual in cleaning up the corruption in multiple agencies within the department. Especially, the MMS, which was found to be so full of ethics violations and graft, that it should have been totally gutted from the ground up, instead of a few firings and disciplinary actions.
But environmentalists are not the only ones unimpressed with Salazar’s record. Former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt has been extremely critical of Salazar’s plan to reform MMS and agrees that it doesn’t go far enough.
Babbitt likened it to “rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic” and said oversight of oil industry regulations should be shifted to the EPA.
President Obama said in his speech Tuesday that the deadly oil spill has been a call-to-arms against the continued reliance on fossil fuel products.
“The United States uses 20% of the world’s oil, but we only have 2% of oil reserves” said Obama. “The time to embrace a clean energy future is now. We can grow the economy and create millions of jobs. We can’t afford not to change how we use energy.”
If Ken Salazar can’t be a more effective player in the president’s fight to get clean energy legislation passed, than Obama should put a new “sheriff” in the Department of Interior.
***Jean Williams 2010
Comments
It's about time the coward enviros started to open their eyes! Maybe next they can take on the trashing of miles and miles of border land by the invasion of Mexicans and OTM's in the south.
All mature, responsible, and civil comments are welcome. Offensive, abusive, and obnoxious comments will be deleted. This post is not a platform to be spammed by people wishing to promote their ideological agendas. It's also helpful to read the article before commenting.
The corruption is probably layers deep and we may never eradicate it all - but every little bit helps.
We need to clean house and get some people in office who won't sell us and our glorious natural heritage down the river.
Great article, thanks!
The whole thing is a mess. Thanks for the informative article.
maryann says: "The corruption is probably layers deep and we may never eradicate it all - but every little bit helps."
As the saying goes, "cut off the head, the body dies."
Interesting opinion piece!
I have never been a fan of Salazar. His brother John is a Senator in Colorado. As ranchers and landowners, their family is in bed with the Cattlemen's Association and Farm Bureau. All their cronies are biased against wildlife that interferes with ranching. Appointing Salazar to the Department of Interior, which includes over sight of the ESA was like giving keys to the hen house to the fox. Bad choice.
We need to clean house and get some people in office who won't sell us and our glorious natural heritage down the river.
Great article, thanks!
Interesting article thanks
The ECOCIDEsalaCZAR should be indicted. He behaves like a bastard to this planet, but he has been given an appointment to protect it as head of the DOI. I've never seen such a mismatched public office -- too bad it wasn't an elected position, because he never would have gotten it.
Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency is not a corporation, partnership, government or government agency. CIRSA doesn't file the reports about its claims handling policies required by CRS 24-10-115. The attorney bills in my lawsuit before judge Naughty Nottingham show that it was discussed with Ken Salazar when CIRSA was paying. CIRSA paid for many calls to and from the federal court to discuss the status of motions as well as a NO PRO SE motion CIRSA's lawyer never filed which judge Naughty nevertheless ratified without a hearing or a statute. That was justified on the basis that I stated that Kevin Bennett, president of Steamboat's city council, might be a drug dealer. Bennetts' attorney bills show that in 2003 he discussed Bennett's NCIC record w Salazar so Salazar knew that there was a convicted drug dealer in public office-- it was secret when the police reported to Bennett but Salazar knew. See D of Col 02-cv-1950 doc 465 and its references to the attorney general.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!