U.S. Interior Secretary-Designate, Senator Ken Salazar
President-Elect Barack Obama began this week with a few more cabinet announcements, including who he has chosen to fill his Energy, Education, and Interior Secretary positions. As far as the Interior is conernced, Obama has decided to keep the senator-love going and has appointed Ken Salazar, a junior senator from Colorado to be the country’s new Interior Secretary. While anyone Obama appointed would probably have eco-friendly folks jumping for joy compared to the current Interior Secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, Senator Salazar seems to have been a well-thought out choice. As a Latino Westerner, Salazar appeals to many Americans who feel very far away from the inner-workings of Washington, and his resume of land-issue policy will be an impressive addition to the cabinet post now held by the “mortal enemy number one” of the Endangered Species Act.
As with any new appointment, it will be hard to tell just how Senator Salazar will fare as Interior Secretary, but his background as the former head of the Rocky Mountain State’s Department of Natural Reseources and as a major influential opponent of Kempthorne’s plan to open Colorado’s Roan Plateau for oil shale development are reassuring for the ecologically-concerned.
So cheers, America- for the future of our land, our water, and our wilderness.
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