Interior Secretary Ken Salazar To Leave Post In March—A Look Back At His Legacy

[Willinois]

Climate Progress takes a pretty positive look at the work of Ken Salazar. He was controversial though and some environmentalists will be happy to see him go.

Quote:Salazar, who joined the cabinet after serving as a U.S. Senator (D-CO) and Colorado Attorney General, will be remembered for founding a renewable energy program for public lands and waters, overhauling offshore oil and gas drilling regulation in the aftermath of one of the worst environmental disasters in our nation’s history, and championing community-based land conservation.

Salazar began his term as Interior Secretary by cleaning up the mess left by the George W. Bush administration, famously calling himself the “new sheriff in town” and vowing to reform a scandal-plagued oil and gas leasing process. Understanding that there are more values to lands and oceans than just oil and gas drilling, he implemented critical reforms to both onshore and offshore leasing, while at the same time overseeing a resurgence in production—in fact, there was more oil and gas production from public lands and waters every year between 2009 and 2011 than between 2006 and 2008.