I have been willing to trust Barack Obama on just about any issue I can think of except this pick for his cabinet choice for Secretary of the Interior. Every day I get emails from the different environmental groups, animal protection groups, etc. and I have been reading about Senator Ken Salazar as long as he has been in office. All pretty disappointing because he is a Democrat but he is way too conservative and loved more by big business than the environmental movement. I was planning on searching out articles about him and then cut and pasting some info about him here. Like so many projects I plan, I never got to it, not that it would have made any difference. Since it was announced he was given the job by Obama this morning I found the following on a blog by Daniel R. Patterson, a State Representative Elect from Tuscon, AZ which was linked from The Atlantic Monthly.
"I and other American conservationists who deal with Interior are disturbed, but mining, livestock, argibusiness and other industries who have dominated Interior for years are excited about Salazar, which should worry anyone concerned with the public-interest.
While Salazar has promoted a few decent environmental actions, his overall record is decidedly mixed, and is especially weak in the arenas most important to the next Secretary of the Interior: protecting scientific integrity, combating global warming, reforming energy development and protecting endangered species.
Salazar has voted against increased fuel efficiency standards for the US automobile fleet; voted to end protection for offshore oil drilling off of Florida’s coast; voted to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to ignore global warming impacts in their water development projects; voted against the repeal of tax breaks for ExxonMobil; voted to support subsidies the livestock industry and other users of public forest and BLM lands; threatened to sue the US Fish and Wildlife Service when its scientists determined the black-tailed prairie dog may be endangered; and fought efforts to increase protection for endangered species and the environment in the Farm Bill."
Daniel Patterson is updating his blog with Some comments from Interior experts about Ken Salazar, with more coming out every hour.
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