Obama Administration Launches Websites for Energy, EPA, Interior

A trio of federal agencies has launched new Web sites to comply with President Obama's Open Government directive.

U.S. EPA posted a new Web site that links to several of its databases on water quality, toxic releases and enforcement activity; the Interior Department has its own site that encourages public participation and talks about transparency; and the Energy Department is encouraging a "national conversation on energy."

Obama announced the Open Government directive in December in an attempt to increase transparency within federal agencies. NYT

The EPA's new site
Department of Interior
DoE

No Drill Here Drill Now Just Yet

Ken Salazar, the man in the cowboy hat who heads the department of the interior, halts Bush's drill plan, one of the last things he did before leaving office (of course), pending more time for review and public comments.

MSNBC: The Obama administration on Tuesday overturned another Bush-era energy policy, announcing it was setting aside a draft plan to allow drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

"To establish an orderly process that allows us to make wise decisions based on sound information, we need to set aside" the plan "and create our own timeline," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced in a statement.

Here is the DOI's release:

Saying he needed to restore order to a broken process, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced his strategy for developing an offshore energy plan that includes both conventional and renewable resources.

His strategy calls for extending the public comment period on a proposed 5-year plan for oil and gas development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf by 180 days, assembling a detailed report from Interior agencies on conventional and renewable offshore energy resources, holding four regional conferences to review these findings, and expediting renewable energy rulemaking for the Outer Continental Shelf.

“To establish an orderly process that allows us to make wise decisions based on sound information, we need to set aside the Bush Administration’s midnight timetable for its OCS drilling plan and create our own timeline,” Salazar said.

On Friday, January 16, its last business day in office, the Bush Administration proposed a new five year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing. The proposal was actually published in the Federal Register on January 21, the day after the new Administration took office.
The deadline for public comment that the Bush Administration established - March 23, 2009 – does not provide enough time for public review or for wise decisions on behalf of taxpayers, the Secretary said.

“The additional time we are providing will give states, stakeholders, and affected communities the opportunity to provide input on the future of our offshore areas,” he said. “The additional time will allow us to restore an orderly process to our offshore energy planning.”

Salazar said this evaluation of the proposed plan also needed better information about what resources may be available in the offshore areas. “In the biggest area that the Bush Administration’s draft OCS plan proposes for oil and gas drilling - the Atlantic seaboard, from Maine to Florida - our data on available resources is very thin, and what little we have is twenty to thirty years old,” he said. “We shouldn’t make decisions to sell off taxpayer resources based on old information.”

Salazar directed the United States Geological Survey, the Minerals Management Service, and other departmental scientists to assemble all the information available about the offshore resources – conventional and renewable – along with information about potential impacts. The report is due in 45 days.

Based on that report, the Department will then determine what areas need more information and create a plan for gathering that information. The Department of the Interior oversees more than 1.7 billion acres on the Outer Continental Shelf – an area roughly three fourths of the size of the entire United States.

“To gather the best ideas for how we accomplish the task of gathering the offshore information we need, I will convene four regional meetings in the 30 days after MMS and USGS publish their report,” Salazar said. “I will host one meeting in Alaska, one on the Pacific Coast, one on the Atlantic Coast, and one on the Gulf Coast.” Salazar will ask all interested parties for their recommendations on how to move ahead with a comprehensive offshore energy plan.

The Secretary also will build a framework for offshore renewable energy development, so that the Department can incorporate the significant potential for wind, wave, and ocean current energy into its offshore energy strategy. “The Bush Administration was so intent on opening new areas for oil and gas offshore that it torpedoed offshore renewable energy efforts,” Salazar said.

As a senator, Salazar helped to craft and pass the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which required Interior to move quickly and issue, within 9 months, rules and regulations to guide the development of offshore energy resources, such as wind, wave, and tidal power. It took three years for the Bush Administration to prepare a proposed rule for offshore renewable energy development. They left office without putting any final regulations in place because it was not their priority, Salazar said, notwithstanding the requirement of the law.

“I intend to issue a final rulemaking for offshore renewables in the coming months, so that potential developers know the rules of the road,” Salazar said. “This rulemaking will allow us to move from the ‘oil and gas only’ approach of the previous Administration to the comprehensive energy plan that we need.”

“We need a new, comprehensive energy plan that takes us to the new energy frontier and secures our energy independence,” Salazar said. “We must embrace President Obama’s vision of energy independence for the sake of our national security, our economic security, and our environmental security.”

By adding the 180 day extension to the original 60-day period, interested parties will have had a total of 240 days (8 months) to comment on the proposed plan. The current comment period opened on January 21, 2009.

Salazar Pledges to Rehab Scandal-Ridden Interior

From Whitehouse.gov.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar kicked off the daily press briefing today with his plans for cleaning out a department that has become famous for scandal.

"Over the last eight years, the Department of Interior has been tarnished by ethical lapses, of criminal behavior that has extended to the very highest levels of government," he said.

He’s taking over a Department plagued by Jack Abramoff-related scandals and another involving sex and drug use by Interior employees, and promised to clean house.

"We will work to reform the Department of the Interior, to restore the public's trust and confidence in the highest levels of ethics and accountability that the American people deserve," he said.

Salazar spoke yesterday as part of the daily White House briefing.
Today, he outlined his plan:

Today, I want to outline the first steps to reform that I plan to take in this Department.

I am speaking with you because the ethical lapses in this office, and the individuals who engaged in blatant and criminal conflicts of interest and self dealing, set one of the worst examples of corruption and abuse in government.

So today, I am directing the following actions, which my chief of staff, Tom Strickland, will lead. Tom Strickland is a former United States Attorney for Colorado. He served as United States Attorney while I served as Colorado’s Attorney General and top law enforcement officer.

1). First, I am redirecting an examination of potential criminal conduct by those who were directly involved in the scandals described in the three Inspector General reports. I have asked the Department of Justice and, if appropriate, the Colorado United States Attorney’s office, to review whether the criminal determinations made earlier were correct. Given the seriousness of the findings of the OIG, I want to make sure that those who blatantly flaunted the law receive the appropriate sanction. Read the rest.

Read yesterday's briefing here.

Bush Trying To Secure Last Minute Deals for Oil

Bush has directed the Department of Interior to explore for oil off the coast of Virginia. Ken Salazar will be the new head of the Interior. Obama promises an overhaul for that department. Some environmental groups are wary of Salazar, who appears to be another pragmatist. See the video below on that.  

CNN: As the price of gas surged past $4 a gallon this summer, U.S. drilling became a hot political issue. President Bush responded by repealing a presidential offshore drilling ban put in place by his father. Then in October, a gridlocked Congress let a separate drilling moratorium expire after 26 years on the books.

Back in Virginia, environmentalists echo their Southwestern counterparts, calling the offshore push a last-ditch energy grab.

"We've got an administration on its way out, trying to make its last deal for the oil and gas industry," said Glenn Besa, director of Virginia's Sierra Club chapter.

Besa pointed to what he sees as a platoon of red flags.

"The Navy has a lot of operations out there, in the area where this drilling takes place," he said, "And the North Atlantic right whale, there's only 300 or 400 of those individual whales left, and they migrate through that area as well."

The Navy has expressed concern about the prospect of drilling rigs in the area where much of its Norfolk fleet trains. NASA has objected as well because it launches satellites and low-altitude rockets from its facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.

The state's Democratic governor, Tim Kaine, asked the Interior Department to let Virginia research possible natural gas reserves. But the agency went further, opening the process for oil and gas leasing.

Luthi defends the move without hesitation. "Oil and gas are going to continue to be a major part of our energy needs in this country," he said, "for at least the next generation."

Some nervous about Salazar:

Obama to Overhaul Interior

Apparently the interior department is in horrible shape. The NYT has an editorial in today's paper about what needs fixing.
During the news conference this morning, Obama announced that Colorado Senator Ken Salazar is the guy to do the overhaul.

Obama said Salazar understands natural resources and can balance energy needs and conservation. Over the last 8 years, the interior department has been "deeply troubled," Obama said. The interior has been seen as an appendage to commercial interests, he said. 

The department is going to be proactive, talking to farmers and ranchers and it will be at the cutting edge of environmental policy. The secretary is important to overall energy discussions, he said.

"If there is going to be a debate about oil shale, I want Ken at the table." If we're debating wind power, Salazar needs to be at the table.

"I also wants an interior department, very frankly, that cleans up it's act."

On Blago, again, he told reporters that by next week they'd have the answers to all their questions. He also announced former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture. Video below 
NYT on the messy interior:

No cabinet post is as critical to the integrity of the nation’s parks, its open spaces and its animal species. Mr. Obama, and his environmental adviser in chief, Carol Browner, must be prepared to offer Mr. Salazar full support, especially in fending off the ranchers and the oil, gas, mining and other special interests who have always found the Interior Department to be a soft target, never more so than in the Bush administration.

Mr. Salazar’s most urgent task will be to remove the influence of politics and ideology from decisions that are best left to science.

Just as Mr. Salazar’s name was surfacing for the job, Earl Devaney, currently the department’s inspector general, reported to Congress that on 15 separate occasions the department’s political appointees had weakened protections for endangered species against the advice of the agency’s scientists, whose work they either ignored or distorted.
This sort of meddling has become standard operating procedure. Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, resigned last year after an earlier report found that she had run roughshod over agency scientists and violated federal rules by giving internal documents to industry lobbyists.

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Obama Picks Ken Salazar for Interior

Update 12-17: see video announcement here. 
At the press conference announcing his green team, Obama said he'd announce his interior secretary pick next week. That pick is Colo. Senator Ken Salazar. The interior secretary is in charge of conservation.

Dirk Kempthorne is the current interior secretary. Who knew. That's one of the reasons I keep this blog -- to learn more about who's leading this country. After Bush, I don't want to be in the dark anymore.
Politico:

In Salazar, Obama sticks with the tradition of filling the interior post with a Westerner while adding a member of his team from a key electoral battleground, one that figured prominently in Obama’s victory strategy.

Salazar, who serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is known for his past work as director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, where he devised a way to conserve land by using state lottery earnings.

A former environmental lawyer, the first-term senator has backed numerous environmentally friendly policies. Just last week, for instance, he urged lawmakers to base the nation’s economic recovery package around clean energy infrastructure – a goal Obama laid out in announcing his energy and environment team Monday.

Salazar also recently called Interior’s decision to move forward on commercial oil shale development in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah “premature and flawed.”