Thursday, December 18, 2008

Praise and Criticism for Proposed Interior Secretary

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His efforts in the past as a state and federal official to thread the difficult political needle between the environment and energy brought him decidedly mixed reviews from environmental groups on Wednesday, but cautious praise from energy and mining interests. 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 the state’s attorney general. He was not the first choice of environmentalists, who openly pushed the appointment of Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, who has a strong record as a conservationist. Pam Kiely, program director at Environment Colorado, said Mr. Salazar had been a champion of wilderness protection and strong water quality laws and a skeptic on oil shale development, a subject of controversy in the Mountain West. Ms. Kiely said she was unsure of his views on drilling in millions of acres of national forests and roadless areas. Daniel R. Patterson, a former official of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management and now southwest regional director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, described Mr. Salazar as 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 supported Mr. Grijalva for the Interior Department 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 crosscurrents, he must also deal with calls to reverse dozens of decisions made in the Bush administration on endangered species and oil and gas leasing....

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