Thursday, December 18, 2008

Obama's choices know the West

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News that the president-elect intends to nominate Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., to head the Department of Interior is good for Westerners worried about the mindless rush to mine oil shale in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado and to open more public lands to drilling rigs and off-road vehicles. Obama's choice of Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, for energy secretary signals an abrupt change from Bush's industry-friendly mantra that America can somehow drill its way to energy independence. Chu's science background is made to order for putting the country on a new course for producing effective anti-pollution technology and quickly getting it on the market. Obama has done well by the West in his other Cabinet nominations --- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as commerce secretary and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as Homeland Security secretary. As governor of a border state, Napolitano has a proven grasp of immigration issues important to Utah and the rest of the country....

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