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Wait! We're Not Done with Bush Yet...

3:18 PM, January 19, 2009 | Comments (25)
Celebratory is a safe way to describe the mood in Washington. And not just for Barack Obama's big day on Tuesday. When Obama raises his right hand, it will mark for millions of his supporters the end of something else. At Dupont Circle in Northwest Washington,...

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Posted Wednesday, December 17, 2008 4:10 PM

Jubilation for Salazar at Interior? Not Quite

Daniel Stone
The Department of Interior has had better weeks. Several months into a stepped-up effort to sift through Endangered Species Act petitions faster, the department's inspector general delivered a report to congress on Monday detailing the extent of political meddling that was involved in more than a dozen designations on species protection. All of them, it was revealed, were decided against advice from Fish and Wildlife scientists in the field.

So you'd think most people, especially ones who advocate for animals like the black-tailed prairie dog, would be ready to turn a page at Interior, impatient for Obama's much-promised new way of doing things in Washington -- a way that he stressed would include species protection and policies of environmental conservation. Obama said during the campaign that whomever became his Secretary of the Interior would have to understand land use issues. But even more important, he said, would be the new IntSec's experience with hunting and fishing. “I think that having a head of the Department of Interior who doesn't understand hunting and fishing would be a problem," he told Field and Stream Magazine in October. "And so my suspicion is that whoever heads up the Department of Interior is probably going to be a sportsman or sportswoman.”

Having expressed his sentiment early on paved the way for Obama's selection, which the president-elect announced today with the choice of Colorado Senator Ken Salazar to head the administration's interior department.

Problem is, wildlife and species protection advocates don't exactly see Salazar as having the same sort of transformational capabilities that Obama claimed his administration would bring to town. Not long after the swirling rumors about Salazar began to gain some traction, the scientifically-respected Center for Biological Diversity put out a statement, essentially hoping that the speculation was wrong, and that Salazar isn't exactly the best choice to reform the department. "The Department of the Interior desperately needs a strong, forward looking, reform-minded Secretary," said Kieran Suckling, the group's executive director. "Unfortunately, Ken Salazar is not that man."

The group points to holes in Salazar's record on issues of land use, drilling in marine habitat and fuel efficiency standards that it says will be particularly important for the next administration to address. There was also an incident in which Salazar's office threatened to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service over its determination that a particular species was endangered, which CBD biologists say could be a signal of how Salazar's interior department could treat future cases under the Endangered Species Act. Defenders of Wildlife, the species-protection organization based in DC, also gives Salazar low marks for his votes on issues affecting wildlife.

Several environmental groups took the liberty in recent weeks to put forth other names that would be more favorable picks for the post. A broad coalition of conservation advocates and scientists had launched a letter-writing campaign to the transition and the media in support of Raul Grijalva, a congressman from Salazar's neighbor state of Arizona who has sharply criticized the Bush Administration's policies on endangered species and natural resources. California congressman Mike Thompson was also on environmentalists' short list.

Still, there is some optimism that Salazar could be more friendly to environmental activists and the science community than the current leadership at Interior. Karen Schambach, a coordinator for the organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility told the LA Times, referencing the rumors, that Salazar would at the very least be open to more public discussion about controversial issues. Talking to a Times reporter, Schambach said that the current administration has silenced conservationist thinkers. She's hopeful that Obama's DOI would, if nothing else, have an open ear.

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