Interior chief Salazar's first year a gusher of controversy

Somewhere just after 12:30 p.m. on a cold Wednesday this month, the image of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as a Western pragmatist and wily political deal-maker evaporated in a cloud of heated rhetoric. After months of doing battle with the oil and gas industry, the typically cautious Salazar lost his cool in a media call Jan. 6, blasting companies for acting like they were "kings of the world" and treating the country's public lands as their own personal "candy store." If energy companies didn't know it already, the Bush era of free-wheeling oil and gas drilling across the West was officially over. A year into his tenure as the 50th secretary of the interior, Salazar has surprised both fans and critics. He's proved bold, ambitious and more willing to directly confront foes than accommodate them. But to critics, Salazar is committing the same sins of which he often accuses the prior administration — politicizing decisions, shutting out views and pursuing an agenda that swaps an industry clique for an environmental one...read more