Interior head ends 1st year with vows of reforms

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar started on the job a year ago pledging to clean up an agency hit by scandals and assailed by critics as under the sway of the oil and gas industry. Starting his second year as head of the nation's biggest landowner, Salazar said he will announce reforms in how energy leases are issued on federal lands and changes in how endangered species are protected. The Colorado rancher and former U.S. senator's actions on energy and endangered species won him praise and denunciation. The oil and gas industry has accused him of discouraging development on public lands, while conservationists see his second look at leases approved under President George W. Bush as a swing toward balance. Environmentalists are suing to overturn Salazar's decision to remove wolves in the northern Rockies from the endangered species list, a decision proponents believe was warranted as the population grew to an estimated 1,600. "It's been a tough year," Salazar said in a New Year's Eve interview with The Associated Press...read more