Salazar at Interior: For Greens, Not a Dream Choice

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Environmentalists have so far been ecstatic over President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet picks, with some even calling it the green dream team. And when Obama introduced Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar as his new Secretary of the Interior at a news conference in Chicago Wednesday morning, he was likely hoping for the same worshipful reaction. "It's time for a new kind of leadership in Washington that's committed to using our lands in a responsible way to benefit all our families," said Obama. "That is the kind of leadership embodied by Ken Salazar." But not all greens are so sure about the Colorado senator-and Salazar's nomination could represent Obama's first conflict with the environmental community. Although mainstream green groups like Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Natural Resources Defense Council were quick to praise Salazar — Dan Grossman, head of EDF's Rocky Mountain office, calls Salazar a "rare talent" — other environmentalists were far less impressed. "His environmental record is pretty mixed," says Kieran Suckling, the executive director of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. "He's far from the most anti-environmental guy out there, but he's no environmental hero." The chief complaints about Salazar — a rancher who worked as Colorado's attorney general before his election to the Senate in 2004 — center on his ties to the ranching and mining industries and some of his votes as a Senator. As attorney general he threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — which he would lead as Interior Secretary — over the listing of the black-tailed prairie dog as endangered. (In Colorado, the animal is still classified as a "pest" to ranchers.) A relatively conservative Democrat, typical of the new centrist Western wing of the party, Salazar voted in favor of President George W. Bush's Interior Secretary nominee Gale Norton, who has been roundly criticized for her mismanagement of the beleaguered department. He also supported his friend Alberto Gonzales for U.S. Attorney General, even escorting Gonzales into the U.S. Senate on the first day of his nomination hearings. Although Salazar has since said that he was wrong to support Gonzales, who eventually stepped down after being accused of politicizing the Justice Dept., his critics view the votes as evidence that the Coloradoan lacks judgment. "This is the guy who will be in charge of picking the head of the Fish and Wildlife Department and countless other positions," says Suckling. "If you look at his record for sussing out personal character, it's bad."....