People in the news

Ken Salazar

Secretary of Interior (since January 2009)

(Sarah L. Voisin /
The Washington Post)

Why He Matters

Obama's Interior secretary offers more than ten years of private-sector legal experience in water and environmental issues, and several decades of work in government, where he focused on land-use, water and natural-resources issues.

Salazar served from 2005 to 2009 as a Democratic senator from Colorado. And with the retirement announcement from sitting Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D), speculation surged in early 2010 that Salazar would be a top recruit for the open gubernatorial race. But Salazar declined.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: U.S. Senator (2005 to 2008); Attorney General of Colorado (January 1999 tp January 2005); Attorney, private practice, specializing in water and environmental law (1994 to 1998)
Other Government Jobs: Executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources (1990 to 1994); Chief legal counsel to Colorado Governor Roy Romer (1986 to 1990)
Birthday: March 2, 1955
Hometown: Born in Alamosa, Colo. and raised in Manassa, Colo.
Alma Mater: Colorado College, B.A. (political science), 1977; University of Michigan, J.D., 1981

Spouse: Hope
Religion: Catholic
DC Office: 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240
Email
Website

Path To Power

Salazar was born in Alamosa, Colo., on March 2, 1955 and raised in nearby Manassa. His parents, Emma and Enrique Salazar, were ranchers in the San Luis Valley, where the family has farmed and ranched the same land over five generations. He is one of eight children, and his older brother, John Salazar, has represented Colorado's 3rd Congressional District since 2005.

Salazar earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Colorado College in 1977, and went on to earn a law degree at the University of Michigan in 1981. After college, he went into private law practice for several years, focusing on water and environmental law. He and his wife have also owned several small businesses over the years, including a Dairy Queen and radio stations.

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The Issues

Salazar was the Senate's staunchest opponent of the Bush administration's plans to rush forward with oil-shale development in Western states. In 2007, Salazar inserted language into an omnibus spending bill to bar the federal government from issuing final rules for commercial oil-shale production. Salazar and other opponents argued that there is not enough yet known about the economic and resource implications of commercial-scale development.

But that moratorium expired on Sept. 30, 2008, and Salazar fought unsuccessfully to have it reinstated. "How is a federal agency to establish regulations, lease land and then manage oil-shale development without knowing whether the technology is commercially viable, how much water the technology would need (no small question in the arid West), how much carbon would be emitted, the source of the electricity to power the projects, or what the effects would be on Western landscapes?" Salazar asked in an op-ed in The Washington Post in July 2008.

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After the moratorium expired, the Bush administration moved forward with final rules on leasing federal lands for development. But it's likely to take another decade for commercial production to begin, and a number of environmental studies must be conducted before leases can be issued, meaning that Salazar will likely have the power to put the breaks on it.

Water

In 2007, Salazar cosponsored a bipartisan bill that called for more efficient use of water and more research into the effects of climate change on water supply, particularly in Western states. "Even if we move forward with significant increases in the use of renewable energies, we are learning that some adaptation measures are inevitable to reduce the harm from climate change that proves to be unavoidable," Salazar said. "[M]any scientists are now saying the American West will experience the effects of climate change sooner and more intensely than most other regions. Our scarce snow and water of the West is already being impacted, much of it in ways that we do not clearly understand."

On other water-resource issues, especially those involving how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducts water projects, Salazar has broken from environmentalists and the majority of Democrats.

In 2007, Salazar voted against an unsuccessful amendment to the Water Resources Development reauthorization bill, which would have required the Army Corps of Engineers to consider the long-and short-term effects of climate change in its planning, and use the best available modern climate science when planning water projects. Salazar also voted against another amendment to the act that would have created an independent commission to assess and prioritize Army Corps of Engineer water projects. The commission was supposed to direct funding away from pet projects and help reduce the $58 billion project backlog.

Land Preservation

Salazar also voted against a subsidy-reform amendment to the 2007 farm bill, which would have increased conservation funding by $1.2 billion and made access to the funds more equitable. He also opposed an amendment to cap farm subsidies and close loopholes that provide large subsidies to industrial-scale farms. The amendment would have redirected almost $100 million of those funds to the Grasslands Reserve Program and the Farmland Protection Program.

Offshore Drilling

In summer 2008, Salazar signed on to the Senate's bipartisan energy plan, which started out as a "Gang of 10" effort and grew to a "Gang of 20" before it was shelved near the close of the 110th Congress. This compromise plan merged tax incentives and funding for renewables with some offshore drilling. Environmentalists were not thrilled with the plan's inclusion of increased access to and funding for research-and- development of fossil fuels like oil and coal, and its support for nuclear energy. But others saw the compromise as a way to move forward on energy policy. On the campaign trail, Obama indicated that he would consider endorsing a similar plan similar in order to get a bill passed.

Alternative Energy

In 2005, his first year in Congress, Salazar cosponsored the Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act, which would have required the White House and federal agencies to develop an action plan to cut America's oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels of oil a day within a decade and 10 million barrels a day by 2031.

In a speech at the Denver World Affairs Council in November 2007, Salazar also touted the need to move away from fossil fuels. "How we improve our energy security and reduce our dependence on foreign oil is the central national security, economic security and environmental security challenge of the next decade," he said. "It will determine whether we will continue to be entrenched in conflicts over resources in every corner of the world. It will determine whether we will triumph in our fight against oil-funded extremists and terrorists. And it will determine whether our economic fortunes will hinge on the price of oil that OPEC sets, or whether the U.S. will stand independently, as the world's innovator for clean energy technologies."

Endangered Species

As attorney general of Colorado, Salazar threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the listing of the black-tailed prairie dog as endangered, a move that environmental groups opposed.

The Network

Salazar and Obama were members of the same freshman Senate class in 2005, and Salazar campaigned for Obama in Colorado during the 2008 election. Salazar also delivered a nominating speech for Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August 2008.

Salazar's brother John (D-Colo.) is also in Congress. The two shared an apartment and used to watch documentaries about cowboys on the Western channel.

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Additional Resources