Obama picks Salazar for Interior

[dbackjon]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081217/ap_ ... r_wh/obama

Salazar will head a department that oversees oil and gas drilling on public lands and manages the nation's parks and wildlife refuges. He is expected to try to balance protection of natural resources with use of the nation's energy potential — an approach Obama said in the announcement that he wants.

"I will do all I can to help reduce America's dependence on foreign oil," Salazar said, wearing a cowboy hat and string tie. "I look forward to working directly with President-elect Obama, as an integral part of his team, as we take the moon shot on energy independence."

Salazar co-sponsored a bill in Congress to create a new land conservation system under the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management for permanently protecting 26 million acres of national monuments, wilderness areas and wild and scenic rivers. The legislation died during the special session of Congress after the November election.

The Colorado senator opposed drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and objected to the Bush administration's efforts to lease Western lands for oil shale development. It will be up to the Obama administration whether to go ahead with leasing.

If Salazar is confirmed as interior secretary, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, will name a replacement to serve out the final two years of his term. Before being elected to the Senate in 2004, Salazar was Colorado's attorney general. He also headed the state's Natural Resources Department from 1990-1994.

[lifesapuntreturn]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122953369021914541.html
"Big Drilling Issues Await Salazar"
by Ian Talley
December 18, 2008
The Wall Street Journal

Salazar is no friend of the oil/gas industry. He knows it is far more expensive and involves a much longer time line and greater financial commitment on the part of the oil/gas industry from a drilling standpoint for them to go offshore than it would for them to go after the oil shale and natural gas deposits on shore.

So, he acts as though he supports offshore drilling, knowing it is a political hot potato that will be bottled up in Congress for at least a couple of years, then, even if it gets out of Congress it will land in the laps of the individual coastal states. It will take another couple of years for the states to act, at least.

By then, 2012 and Obama's re-election bid will be a distant memory and Obama will have successfully played "beat the clock" with the issue of domestic drilling, both offshore and onshore. Of course, gas prices will be well north of $5/gallon by then but we'll still be told green energy is the solution.