Salazar ‘still standing tall:’ Interior chief says he’s proud of his record

Buffeted by fallout from the BP oil spill and outcry from fellow Westerners over drilling reforms, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he feels he’s “still standing tall here” in his job and is moving forward with the administration’s agenda on energy and conservation. Salazar said in an interview Monday with The Associated Press that he intends to stay in office until the end of President Barack Obama’s term. If Obama is re-elected next year and wants him to stay, Salazar said he will decide then about continuing. “Almost everything that we do at Interior touches all of America,” the former Democratic senator from Colorado said. “These are tough issues and it’s tough to serve.” After nearly three years on the job, Salazar said he is proud of the administration’s work promoting renewable energy and conservation and reforming oil and gas drilling. Wearing his signature cowboy hat and bolo tie, Salazar declared in a news conference early in his tenure that there was “a new sheriff in town” and that he was determined to clean up an agency plagued by scandals and assailed by critics as under the sway of the oil and gas industry...more