Salazar for Interior?

posted at 5:03 pm on December 15, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Drill Here, Drill Now may suffer a body blow in the next administration.  The Denver Post reports that another freshman Senator from Obama’s class will get appointed Secretary of the Interior.  Ken Salazar has only served four years of his first term, which will raise some eyebrows given the inexperience of Obama himself:

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar is a leading contender to become President-elect Barack Obama’s secretary of the Interior, two sources have confirmed.

Reuters News Service used even stronger language in a report Sunday, saying Salazar had become the top candidate for the job.

The worldwide news agency did not cite a source in putting the Colorado senator at the top of Obama’s list to lead the agency that plays a key role in issues important to Western states, such as overseeing oil and gas leases.

A Salazar-led Interior would mean bad news for oil shale production.  Salazar opposes any kind of production in the shale formations of Colorado, Utah, and the interior West, even putting Mary Landrieu at risk in her recent election bid by getting her to oppose leases for exploration in the region.  As Interior Secretary, Salazar would likely obstruct efforts to recover the hundreds of billions of barrels of oil locked in shale.

Harry Reid won’t have to worry about his majority if Salazar gets the nod, however.  Governor Bill Ritter is a Democrat and will appoint Salazar’s replacement for the remainder of his term, which ends in 2010.  Salazar and his allies have already begun pushing his brother John as a candidate for the appointment.  John Salazar serves in Congress, representing CO-3, and had been mentioned as a possible Agriculture Secretary.  John instead took a seat on Appropriations, the pinnacle (unfortunately) of Congressional assignments.

Salazar has more experience for this job than Obama had for the presidency.  Although both only served less than four years in the Senate, Salazar ran Colorado’s Dept. of Natural Resources for four years.  He has also served as Attorney General for the six years prior to his Senate term, giving him several years of executive experience.  Salazar hasn’t had any obvious scandals and could expect a very easy ride from his colleagues in the Senate, giving Obama a breather from the scandals erupting around him.  Of course, that will mean that he will do better than the Bush judicial appointments he promised to support during his election and then reversed himself once under Reid’s tutelage.  Perhaps someone will ask him once again why he thinks James Dobson is the Anti-Christ.  That should at least make the confirmation hearings entertaining.

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