Obama nominates Kornze to lead BLM

President Barack Obama has nominated a senior Bureau of Land Management administrator to become the next director of the agency.

Neil G. Kornze, a native Nevadan, got the nod Nov. 7.

"Neil has helped implement forward-looking reforms at the BLM to promote energy development in areas of minimal conflict, drive landscape-level planning efforts, and dramatically expand the agency’s use of technology to speed up the process for energy permitting,” Interior secretary Sally Jewell said.

Kornze, 34, has been at BLM since 2011, when he joined the agency as a senior advisor to the director. He has been serving as acting director since March of this year.

BLM has not had a permanent director since March 2012, when Bob Abbey retired.

Before joining the agency Kornze worked for Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

He has a masters degree in international relations from the London School of Economics, in addition to a B.A. in politics from Whitman College.

Kornze's family has a long history of work in the mining industry in the Elko, Nev. region.

Notwithstanding the possibility that the nominee will be sympathetic to mining interests, which rely on BLM lands throughout the West, environmental organizations generally welcomed the nomination.

"As a westerner, he knows first-hand the importance of careful stewardship of our public lands," Alex Taurel, the deputy legislative director of the League of Conservation Voters, said. "He's the right choice for the job, and the Senate should act quickly on his nomination."

Trout Unlimited touted Kornze's consensus-building skills.

"During his time on Capitol Hill and in recent years at the BLM, Neil has demonstrated a pragmatic, solutions-oriented approach to public lands challenges,” TU president and chief executive officer Chris Wood said.

Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Interior

Ninth Circuit considering whether to grant en banc review in Drakes Bay Oyster case

The San Francisco-based federal appeals court that upheld an Obama administration decision not to renew a permit allowing oyster farming at Point Reyes National Seashore is considering whether to re-hear the case.

In an order released Tuesday, the judges who wrote the Sept. 3 opinion asked the U.S. Department of Justice to inform the court whether it thinks en banc review is appropriate. The court set a Dec. 2 deadline for the Obama administration's brief.

The case involves a clash between a 1970s decision by Congress to designate an estuary called Drakes Estero, the likely site of the first landing by Europeans in California in 1579, as a potential addition to the National Wilderness Preservation System and a shellfish farm that has been in operation for about eight decades. 

Former secretary of the interior Ken Salazar announced in Nov. 2012 that a 40-year lease allowing use of about 1,100 acres located in the western half of the estuary for shellfish harvesting would not be renewed.

If the Interior Department's decision not to renew the lease and accompanying special use permit is upheld, then the Drakes Estero acreage used by Drakes Bay Oyster Co., as well as about 1,600 additional acres, will become part of the first marine wilderness area on the west coast.

En banc review, or reconsideration of a three-judge panel's opinion by a larger group of judges, is conducted in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by 11 judges. According to the court's rules, the judges who would sit on such a panel are chosen at random by a member of the clerk of court's staff.

Federal law authorizes appeals courts to grant en banc review if the case is of "exceptional importance" or if the decision by the panel of three circuit judges is in conflict with a decision by another three-judge panel.

In the Drakes Bay case, the permit holder argues that an amendment to a 2009 law authorizes perpetual operation of the oyster farm, despite the 1976 statute.

The case is Drakes Bay Oyster Co. v. Jewell, No. 13-15227.

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.

Salazar to leave Interior post

Interior secretary Ken Salazar will soon go home to Colorado.

The former U.S. senator, 57, who has served at the helm of the nation's natural resources watchdog since the Obama administration began, said Wednesday that he would leave his job at the end of March.

“I have had the privilege of reforming the Department of the Interior to help lead the United States in securing a new energy frontier, ushering in a conservation agenda for the 21st century, and honoring our word to the nation’s first Americans,” Salazar said in a statement.

Among his accomplishments are the authorization of the first renewable energy projects on public land. During Salazar's tenure the Department of Interior has given the go-ahead to 34 geothermal, solar, and wind generation facilities to be built on government real estate.

Salazar also revamped the department's organizational structure for managing offshore oil and gas leasing by separating its royalty-collection function from its regulatory function. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement are now autonomous units within the department, having replaced the Minerals Management Service.

Salazar also settled a multi-billion dollar lawsuit from native American tribes that alleged mis-management of trust fund and oversaw the establishment of seven national parks and 10 national wildlife refuges.

Critics attacked Salazar during and after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, arguing that the secretary's advocacy of a drilling moratorium and strong rhetoric aimed at BP and other entities involved in the operation of the Deepwater Horizon rig indicated a hostility to oil extraction.

In 2012 domestic oil production reached its highest level since 2003, and although overall fossil fuel extraction from federal public lands has been on a recent declining trend, Salazar has overseen a significant increase relative to a similar period during the George W. Bush administration.

Other noteworthy achievements during Salazar's tenure include an overhaul of the government's system for leasing native American lands and an agreement with Mexico on dividing up Colorado River flows.

Environmental groups generally lauded Salazar in the aftermath of his announcement. The Sierra Club, for example, praised him.

"Thanks to Secretary Salazar, more national parks and wildlife refuges are open, more of America's pristine Arctic is off-limits to dangerous drilling, and more public lands are in public hands," executive director Michael Brune said. "He also led the overhaul of safety standards for drilling in the wake of the BP oil disaster and stood up to defend American wilderness by protecting Drakes Estero national seashore."

Francis Beinecke, the president of Natural Resources Defense Council, was more cautious in her acclaim.

"He's laid a sound foundation for solar power on federal lands, while protecting special areas where development doesn't make sense," she said. "He moved quickly to improve public oversight of offshore drilling in the wake of the BP oil disaster. And he’s worked to end the global bazaar in polar bears, where his continued leadership will be vital in the waning months of his tenure."

But, Beinecke added, Salazar's successor "must clear out the unconscionable backlog that keeps endangered wildlife from getting the protection they need" and "do more to protect our waters, ranches, communities and farms from the ravages of gas and oil production."

"[T]hey must learn from Shell's disastrous performance in recent months that we cannot expose Arctic waters to the perils of offshore drilling,” Beinecke added.

Beinecke was referring to the recent incident involving a run-away oil rig that ran aground in Alaska.

Before becoming the nation's 50th secretary of the interior Salazar served four years in the Senate and six years as Colorado's attorney general.

Interior secretary Ken Salazar has told the White House he will leave the president's cabinet in March. 

Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Interior.

Interior department opens U.S. Atlantic coast for windmills

The Atlantic coast, or at least parts of it, will soon be dotted with windmills.

The Obama administration launched Friday an effort to lease more than a quarter of a million acres in federal waters off Virginia, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts for wind energy production. It is the U.S. government's first-ever lease of rights to use the outer continental shelf as a site for production of renewable energy.

Interior secretary Ken Salazar explained that the lease, which will affect about 278,000 acres, is part of the administration's commitment to an "all of the above" energy strategy.

"Wind energy along the Atlantic holds enormous potential, and today we are moving closer to tapping into this massive domestic energy resource to create jobs, increase our energy security, and strengthen our nation's competitiveness in this new energy frontier," Salazar said in a statement.

The 432 square miles covered by the leases are expected to produce a fraction of the power potential of wind along the eastern seaboard. According to a 2010 report produced by the environmental advocacy organization Oceana, wind power generated off the Atlantic coast could supply almost half of the electricity needed by 11 states in the region.

The economic benefits may be substantial, too. The Oceana report projected that production of the same quantity of power as is generated by wind in Europe would cost about $36 billion less than reliance on fossil fuels while generating between 133,000 and 212,000 jobs.

The U.S. government is not as sanguine about the advantages of wind energy, but nevertheless predicts significant benefits.

The major obstacle to increasing electricity production from wind energy is high capital costs. In fact, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a wind power facility's levelized cost of electricity is higher than that of a plant that burns fossil fuels.

The capital costs are higher for an offshore wind energy production plant than for a similar facility built on land.

Friday's auction covers an area of about 164,750 acres off the Massachusetts and Rhode Island coasts and another area of about 112,800 acres.

The areas leased off the coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island are about ten miles out to sea and are expected to produce enough electricity for 700,000 homes, The area leased off the Virginia coast, which will be developed about 23 nautical miles away from the shore, is expected to generate a similar amount of power.

The U.S. was, as of 2009, the world's leading producer of wind energy. However, the country produced only two percent of its electricity from that source during 2009, making it a distant follower of Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and Germany. Each of those nations obtained at least seven percent of their domestic electricity needs from wind turbines.

Legislation enacted in 2005 authorizes the Interior department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to lease offshore waters for renewable energy production.

The Interior department will award the leases in 2013.

Deputy Interior secretary to leave post

Interior secretary Ken Salazar's chief aide is leaving his job.

Assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks Tom Strickland, who also serves as Salazar's chief of staff, will resign effective sometime in February, according to a report in The Hill.

He will be temporarily replaced as assistant secretary by Will Shafroth, who is currently deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, and as chief of staff by his deputy, Laura Daniel Davis.

Strickland was Colorado's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1996 and 2002. A lawyer, he has been the state's U.S. attorney, a partner in a law firm, and an executive of a health insurance firm.

Salazar told the Denver Post that Strickland's departure is not an indication of any staff shakeup at Interior.

Senate GOP Blocks Deputy Interior Secretary Nominee

President Obama's nomination of a deputy secretary of interior continued to be stalled in the Senate Wednesday as Republicans rallied to defeat a cloture motion.

David Hayes, who would be Interior secretary Ken Salazar's number two, cannot take the job for which he has been chosen until the filibuster is stopped and confirmation by the Senate is secured.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said that the filibuster is aimed at convincing Salazar to explain further his recent decision to cancel certain oil and gas leases in the West.

The vote on the cloture motion was 57-39. Sixty votes are required to stop a filibuster.

Obama Administration Revokes Bush ESA Rule

The Obama administration has revoked a controversial regulation that eliminated the long-standing requirement forcing government agencies to consult with biologists at the Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries when proposing an action that would impact a species listed as endangered or threatened.

Interior secretary Ken Salazar and Commerce secretary Gary Locke, in immediately revoking the last-minute Bush administration regulatory change, used power given them by a provision in the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act. In addition, President Barack Obama had directed the cabinet officials to review the Bush ESA regulation.

The Bush administration's regulation was finalized in December 2008 and took effect January 15, 2009.

Federal Judge Halts Redrock Country Oil & Gas Leases

A federal judge in Washington, DC has blocked Bush administration efforts to open 110,000 acres of land in Utah's famous red rock country for oil and gas drilling.

The judge, Ricardo Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued a temporary restraining order. He wrote in his opinion that he needed more time to evaluate the arguments of both parties. As is necessary in any case in which an injunction is issued, the judge found that the plaintiff conservation groups "have shown a likelihood of success on the merits" and that the "'development of domestic energy resources' … is far outweighed by the public interest in avoiding irreparable damage to public lands and the environment."

Environmentalists welcomed the decision.

"Under the Bush administration, the Bureau of Land Management pushed through Resource Management Plans that treated some of America's most sensitive and spectacular public lands as the private playgrounds of the oil and gas companies," Grand Canyon Trust executive director Bill Hedden said. "Today's heartening court decision gives these unique places a last second pardon from forever sacrificing their archaeological treasures, pristine air and remote wildness in order to sate only an hour or two of our national addiction to oil and gas."

Urbina's ruling means that the checks written to the U.S. Treasury by the successful bidders for the drilling rights cannot be cashed and no drilling activity can occur on the affected land.

The parcels at issue are near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dinosaur National Monument and some are located within the roadless Desolation Canyon area, which is being considered for wilderness designation. The area covered by the auction also contains a large amount of prehistoric archaeological sites and other cultural resources, including those within Nine Mile Canyon.

The parcels had been auctioned Dec. 19 after having been announced on election day and the Bureau of Land Management had announced it would finalize the leases on Jan. 19.

The issuance of the temporary restraining order will give the incoming Obama administration an opportunity to re-consider the sale of the leases. Aides to the president-elect have voiced concerns about opening the parcels to oil and gas drilling.

Judge Urbina's decision came in Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance et ux. v. Allred et al., No. 1:08-CV-02187-RMU (D.D.C.).

A New York Times story from November 2008 on the controversy is here.

California Tries to Block Bush ESA Changes

The state of California has filed a lawsuit challenging the Bush Administration's last-minute changes to Endangered Species Act regulations.

In a filing Monday night with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, attorney general Jerry Brown alleged that the Interior Department's proposed changes, which would eliminate agency obligations to consult with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service or NOAA Fisheries before engaging in development activities that might impact a listed species, violate the ESA itself.

“The Bush Administration is seeking to gut the Endangered Species Act on its way out the door,” Brown said. “This is an audacious attempt to circumvent a time-tested statute that for 35 years has required scientific review of proposed federal agency decisions that affect wildlife.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the Interior and Commerce departments, by issuing the new regulations, violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to consider the environmental ramifications of the proposed new regulations and the Administrative Procedures Act by not adequately considering public comments.

The Bush administration's late changes to the ESA regulations also remove a requirement that federal agencies consider greenhouse gas emissions before approving development projects on public land.

The regulations were proposed in August and finalized Dec. 16.

The complaint is here.

Salazar Nominated to Lead Interior

Colorado Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar will be the next Secretary of the Interior.

President-elect Barack Obama announced today in Chicago that he has asked Salazar, a first-term Senator, to join his cabinet.

Obama called Salazar, a “champion for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities,” that will “bring to the Department of Interior an abiding commitment to this land we love.”

He criticized the Bush Administration Interior Department as having had "too many problems and too much -- too much emphasis on big-time lobbyists in Washington and not enough emphasis on what's good for the American people."

Salazar said he would work to build American energy independence.

"I will do all I can to help reduce America's dependence on foreign oil,” Salazar said. “I look forward to working directly with President-elect Obama, as an integral part of his team, as we take the moon-shot on energy independence.”

The nominee later said in a press release that he would focus on the traditional priorities of the department, but with a new emphasis on renewable energy. He also mentioned protection of public lands.

"I look forward to helping build our clean energy economy, modernize our interstate electrical grid, and ensure that we are making wise use of our conventional natural resources, including coal, oil, and natural gas," Salazar said. "I look forward to protecting our national parks, public lands and open spaces, and America’s farm and ranchlands. I look forward to restoring our Nation’s rivers and working to resolve our water supply challenges."

Salazar will be replaced in the Senate after confirmation by an appointee of Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D).

Salazar Named Interior Secretary

The Denver Post is reporting that Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., has accepted President-elect Barack Obama's offer to become U.S. Interior Secretary.

Salazar, who is in his first term in the Senate, formerly served as Colorado's attorney general and director of the state department of natural resources. He sits on the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee.