A New Direction for the U.S. Dept. of Interior

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Photo from the Denver Post

Sheriff Arpaio may be doing things the same (or worse) in Phoenix (see dream act post "The Chain Gang of the 21st Century") but our new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has taken the U.S. Department of Interior to an ethical and respectable place.  According to the NYT he cancelled "oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of public land in Utah."

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New York Times
Editorial
Ken Salazar’s New Deal

Published: February 5, 2009

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s first major decision — to cancel oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of public land in Utah — could not have sent a clearer signal that his department is under new management. It also was a strong indication that the Obama administration intends to take a more measured approach to energy exploration on the public lands and that its predecessor’s drill-now, drill-anywhere policies are a thing of the past...more