Interior nominee Salazar lays out his urgent to-do list

By Lisa Mascaro

Friday, Jan. 16, 2009 | 2 a.m.

In an issue of vital interest in Nevada, Interior Secretary-nominee Ken Salazar said he hopes to push through mining law reforms pending in Congress that are more protective of water and land resources.

At his confirmation hearing Thursday, Salazar sought to assure senators that he “is not against mining.” Nor did he wade into the details of royalty payments that have tripped up past efforts to change the gold mining law.

But Salazar said federal mining law, adopted in 1872, needs to be revised to reflect the “modern understanding we have of the impacts of mining.”

“We do need stronger standards than what are set forth in the 1872 mining law. That will be part of the discussion as we try to work with you and others — put together a reform that is sensitive, makes common sense, can garner the votes.”

The fifth-generation Colorado rancher is a known as a political pragmatist, and those qualities were on display before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He spoke of the need to craft the mining legislation to win votes in both houses of Congress.

Mining is Nevada’s No. 2 industry, with gold and other hard-rock mining fueling jobs across the rural reaches of the state. Yet for all the urgency Salazar brings to the mining law debate, it is not likely to be his top priority.

Salazar laid out an urgent to-do list that starts with cleaning up the ethical lapses that marred the Interior Department during the Bush administration and launching President-elect Barack Obama’s green energy revolution.

Salazar seeks to transform the department from one that has long focused on Western public lands into a pivotal player in developing new domestic energy resources.

“In many ways, the Department of Interior is, quote, the real Energy Department,” Salazar told reporters after the hearing. “I want to move this department to a whole new level of activity in the 21st century.”

Salazar is a first-term senator who serves on the panel confirming him, and he found many supporters Thursday on both sides of the aisle.

Colleagues praised his even-handed approach to legislating and at one point a Republican senator joked that another had left the hearing to “go buy you flowers.”

Like many of Obama’s Cabinet nominees, Salazar brings a compelling story. He grew up in Colorado’s San Luis Valley on a ranch with no electricity, no telephone, no TV. His family’s roots in the region date back four centuries.

“I grew up learning how to shoot a gun probably when I was 3 years old,” he told the panel.

Environmental organizations have said Salazar was not their first choice, and a coalition of groups continued that stance on Wednesday.

Like many Cabinet nominees, Salazar deflected more detailed responses to several questions.

When pressed by oil-state senators on whether he would reinstate the off-shore drilling ban that was lifted last year, he declined to say.

Asked whether he would free up oil shale leasing on public lands, he said questions remain.

Queried whether he would retain the Bush administration’s recent decision to allow guns in the national parks, he said, “We’ll take a look.”

His nomination is expected to win Senate approval.