Super Eco

Photo credit: Obama-Biden Transition Project

Ken Salazar, rancher and Senator from Colorado since 2005, was nominated by Barack Obama as Secretary of the Interior in December 2008. Salazar was born in Alamosa, Colorado and grew up in the rural community of La Jara in southwestern Colorado. He earned his BA and JD degrees from Colorado College and the University of Michigan Law School, graduating in 1981 and going into private law practice. In 1986 he became chief legal counsel to Governor Roy Romer, and was appointed to the state cabinet as Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources in 1990. In 1998, he ran for Colorado Attorney General, and held this position until 2004, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

In Colorado, Salazar authored the Great Outdoors Colorado Amendment, a large land conservation program; the Youth in Natural Resources program, which developed environmental education in public schools; and reforms forcing the mining and petroleum operations to better care for the land surrounding their operations. As a Democratic Senator, he angered many party loyalists by voting toward the middle, among other things, endorsing conservative pick Gale Norton's selection as Secretary of the Interior. Norton's department has been criticized for being corrupt, disorganized, and favoring oil and gas interests over their potential environmental impacts.

The Department of the Interior owns one of every five acres of land in the United States, including national parks, forests and wildlife refuges. The department is responsible for maintaining the treaties with American Indians and Alaska Natives; "conduct scientific research, provide energy and mineral resources, foster sound use of land and water resources, and conserve and protect fish and wildlife." The Department of the Interior is a revenue-generating agency, charging fees for companies and individuals who use its energy, mineral, grazing, timber and recreation resources.

Notable Eco Activity

Ken Salazar is both admired and criticized by environmentalists. Many conservationists praise him for his campaign pledge to support "Our land, our water, our people." On the other hand, he has voted against environmental issues many times, including voting against increasing fuel-efficiency standards in 2005; against ending protections limiting off-shore drilling off the Florida coast in 2006; and against requiring the Army Corps of Engineers to consider global warming when planning water projects in 2007.

The Sierra Club supports him for his protection of land and water rights; and many environmentalists are pleased with his opposition to oil shale and in-situ uranium mining. Francis Bieneke of the Natural Resources Defense Council writes of his background as an attractive characteristic; "Salazar’s own connection to the land gives me hope. Salazar is a fifth-generation Coloradan who grew up on a cattle and alfalfa ranch without running water or electricity. His home was is in the stunning San Luis Valley, where rich ranching and farming land is banked by the wild San Juan and Sangre de Cristo mountain ranges."

The Western Watersheds Project argued strenuously against Salazar's selection, in a letter sent to President Obama, the group, along with the WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote "in 1999, Salazar threatened a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior if the Service listed the black-tailed prairie dog under the ESA. Rather than respecting the ESA’s requirement that listing decisions are to be based solely on science, Salazar and his co-authors complained about potential impacts “to its citizens” of protecting the prairie dog from extinction... While Colorado’s U.S. Senator, Salazar continued to be very clear that he would not back ESA listings if they affect agribusiness. But many of the state’s vanishing species, including the black-tailed prairie dog, mountain plover, Gunnison’s prairie dog, lesser prairie-chicken, and others, are threatened by agribusiness... We fear that they would remain unprotected under an Interior Secretary Salazar, given his deference to agriculture and his lack of zeal on ESA enforcement."

• Ken Salazar Details

  • Birth Date

    March 2, 1955

  • Born In

    United States

  • Home Page

    http://salazar.senate.gov/

  • Lives In

    United States

  • Organizations

    Unavailable

  • Occupation

    U.S. Secretary of Interior