Obama nominates REI head Jewell to replace Salazar at Interior Department

President Barack Obama has broken recent tradition when it comes to picking a secretary of the interior.

Obama has nominated Sally Jewell, the president and chief executive officer of outdoor gear giant Recreational Equipment, Inc., for the post.

Donald P. Hodel, who served during the second Reagan administration in the 1980s, was the last person without experience as a statewide elected official or member of Congress to be appointed secretary of the interior.

"So even as Sally has spent the majority of her career outside of Washington, where, I might add, the majority of our interior is located,” Obama said during an announcement at the White House Wednesday, “she is an expert on the energy and climate issues that are going to shape our future. She knows the link between conservation and good jobs. She knows that there’s no contradiction between being good stewards of the land and our economic progress; that in fact, those two things need to go hand in hand.”

Jewell has a background as a commercial banking executive and as an engineer. She joined the board of directors at REI in 1996 and became the retailer's CEO in 2000.

REI was founded in 1938 and has 127 stores around the world. The company generated revenues of about $1.8 billion in 2011 and employs about 11,000 people.

Those numbers are a mere fraction of similar measurements of the department of the interior's fiscal situation.

The nation's primary land management agency spent about $21.5 billion in fiscal year 2011 and employs more than 70,000 people.

The prospect of Jewell's nomination was lauded by leaders of several national environmental organizations.

Francis Beinecke, the president of Natural Resources Defense Council, said that Jewell has "the heart of an environmentalist and the know-how of a businesswoman" and applauded her "unique experience and "love of the outdoors." The Sierra Club's executive director, Michael Brune, complimented Jewell for her "demonstrated commitment to preserving the higher purposes public lands hold for all Americans," while Defenders of Wildlife president Jamie Rappaport Clark said that her organization is optimistic that Jewell will be a "strong conservation leader who will protect our natural heritage, promote a positive vision for our public lands and wildlife and stand with us to help renew America's commitment to conservation."

The chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon, also welcomed the expected nomination. He said, in a statement posted on the committee's website, that she is an "inspired choice" who will "bring a new vision to the Interior Department."

"Her record shows that she understands the importance of preserving our public lands for future generations, as well as the critical links between public lands, natural resources and economic growth," Wyden continued.

The committee's ranking Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, took a much more cautious stand on the nomination.

"The livelihoods of Americans living and working in the West rely on maintaining a real balance between conservation and economic opportunity," Murkowski said. "I look forward to hearing about the qualifications Ms. Jewell has that make her a suitable candidate to run such an important agency, and how she plans to restore balance to the Interior Department.”

A representative of the Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas industry trade association, issued a more positive statement, albeit one that included a pitch for a greater emphasis on public lands oil and gas extraction.

"Her experience as a petroleum engineer and business leader will bring a unique perspective to an office that is key to our nation's energy portfolio," Tim Wigley, the organization's president, said. "We hope to see a better balance of productive development on non-park, non-wilderness public lands that enhances the wealth of America and creates jobs while protecting the environment."

Most interior secretaries in the post-World War II era have been western politicians. For example, incumbent Ken Salazar is a former U.S. senator from Colorado and state attorney general.

His predecessors in the George W. Bush administration, Gale A. Norton and Dirk Kempthorne, were, respectively, a former Colorado attorney general and ex-U.S. senator from Idaho. Clinton administration interior secretary Bruce Babbitt was a former Arizona governor and attorney general, while Manuel Lujan, Jr., who held the job between 1989-1993, was a former congressman from New Mexico.

If confirmed, Jewell would be the nation's 51st secretary of the interior, but only the second woman to hold the job.

A native of England, Jewell has lived in the United States since early childhood and is an American citizen.