ken salazar

Tim Pleasant / Shutterstock.com

As the Obama administration sets off to begin its second term in office, they’ll have to start off without the services of a key inside member of the energy department in years past.Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has decided to step away from his position and return back to Colorado in March.  He served as Senator of the Centennial...[read more]

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar says reports that the U.S. government has approved BP's (NYSE: BP) requests to resume drilling at its existing wells in the Gulf of Mexico are inaccurate. Over the weekend, the United Kingdom's Financial Times reported that BP was close to an agreement with the U.S. government which...[read more]

This week saw US politicians taking action to encourage offshore wind energy along the US Atlantic Coast. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a new initiative dubbed ‘Smart from the Start’ with the purpose of selecting the best sites for offshore wind farms. The initiative is based on regulatory change designed to speed up...[read more]

Gaining on the momentum of approving its first solar projects to be built on public lands earlier this month, the U.S. government has now sanctioned the largest solar project to built on public land -- the 1,000-megawatt Blythe Solar Power Project. The US$6 billion Blythe solar power plant is located in California's Mojave Desert, and...[read more]

I welcome Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s announcement on Tuesday that he has approved the first two new solar projects on public lands in California in more than two decades. These ventures will help jumpstart America’s transition to clean, sustainable power that is free of toxic emissions and global warming pollution. But all energy...[read more]

This week Secretary of Interior Salazar reissued the administration's deepwater drilling moratorium, with a few new twists and a notional six month limit. This happened in spite of loud protests from the states most affected by the spill, some of their representatives in Washington, and even some skepticism from the heads of the...[read more]

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar this afternoon announced the administration’s intention to fight to keep a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in place, despite a federal judge’s ruling today that placed an injunction on the measure. In a statement released today, Salazar defended the...[read more]

I’ve come across a number of articles in the past couple of days on the oil disaster in the gulf coast that highlight many of the angles of this catastrophe.  The following are some noteworthy excerpts from the articles, and a critique of President Obama for the lack of attention he is bringing to the broader problem with our...[read more]

“I think it should spur it on,” Reid said. “We have to take care of this issue. I am amazed how difficult it seems to be to get people interested in alternative energy.” Reid cited Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s decision last week to approve a long-standing permitting application for the Cape Wind project off the Massachusetts...[read more]

What happened on two coasts in the US the past two weeks speaks to our energy reality. The two coasts tell us where we are. Both events illustrate the conundrum in which we find ourselves early in the 21st Century and very early in the transition from one primary fuel source to the next. First the good news: Consent was given by US...[read more]

Defining Sacred Compare for yourself the destruction of the sacred rainforest by oil drilling to the modest development of the this region (right) by wind turbines. After almost a decade of NIMBY opposition Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has handed a big win to Cape Wind -- what will become the country's first offshore wind farm -- and...[read more]

America took one giant step into the clean energy future today when Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approved the Cape Wind offshore wind project. Finally, we can move forward with this critical tool for addressing climate change. I spent every summer of my childhood on Cape Cod, digging for clams and collecting shells on Nauset...[read more]

US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was in Massachusetts today to announce that the Department of Interior is approving the Cape Cod offshore wind farm. The project has been incredibly contentious in Massachusetts, resulting in a nine-year delay on moving forward and the development of unusual political fissures in the state....[read more]

This Wonk Room repost is by guest blogger is Tom Kenworthy, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. When president-elect Barack Obama nominated Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar to head the Department of Interior at the end of 2008, some voices in the conservation community wondered whether the moderate Democrat with ties to...[read more]

After the Bush Administration had a “drill everywhere” policy, the Obama Administration and its Dept. of the Interior are setting stricter rules and greater public influence on how oil and gas leases are rewarded.  This is a good step, considering that Salazar has in my opinion been disappointing over his lack of leadership on...[read more]