Obama chooses Coloradan to balance interior interests

— President-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead the Interior Department, Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, said yesterday that his job would be to try to balance protection of public lands with the continued development of domestic sources of coal, oil and natural gas.

His efforts in the past as a state and federal official to thread the difficult political needle between the environment and energy brought him mixed reviews from environmental groups yesterday but cautious praise from energy and mining interests.

As he deals with climate change, land and water issues, protection of endangered species and relations with American Indian tribes, Salazar also will have to try to manage an agency demoralized by years of scandal, political interference and mismanagement.

Obama introduced Salazar and Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor chosen to be secretary of agriculture, at a news conference yesterday in Chicago.

Separately, news reports yesterday indicated that Obama had made his selections for Securities and Exchange Commission chief, transportation secretary and U.S. trade representative.


Schapiro, who would head the embattled SEC, is a Clinton administration veteran who also was an SEC commissioner for six years. She would become the first woman to head the agency, established in the 1930s in the tumult of the Great Depression.

Obama's choice of LaHood, a Republican congressman, to serve as transportation secretary, fulfills a promise to name Republicans to the Cabinet. LaHood, who has transportation legislation experience, would influence how billions of infrastructure dollars are spent to stimulate the U.S. economy.


Meanwhile, at yesterday's news conference, Obama said Salazar and Vilsack would be responsible for exploiting America's bounty in a way that benefits all citizens and not just moneyed interests.

“It's time for a new kind of leadership in Washington that's committed to using our lands in a responsible way to benefit all our families,” Obama said. “That means ensuring that even as we are promoting development where it makes sense, we are also fulfilling our obligation to protect our national treasures.”

Salazar, wearing his customary ten-gallon hat and bolo tie, said his job would entail helping the nation address climate change through a technological “moon shot” on energy independence. That includes not just development of green energy sources such as wind power, but also the continued domestic development of coal, oil and natural gas, fossil fuels that generate greenhouse gases when they are burned.

Environmental advocates offered mixed reviews of Salazar, 53, a fifth-generation Coloradan and a first-term Democratic senator who served as head of Colorado's natural resources department and the state's attorney general.


