Many of us knew that this compromising sheep-in-sheep’s-clothing wouldn’t do much to reverse Bush-era regulations and anti-environment activities. Who knew it would be so soon!
A proposal issued in the final days of the Bush administration to expand offshore drilling in previously banned areas will move forward under the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, an Interior Department spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday.
12:38 pm, January 24th, 2009
But you’re pretty darn cute!
12:56 am, December 23rd, 2008
… Always working the angles:
Under the Montana Legacy Project, the purchased lands will be transferred into a mixture of private, state and federal ownership, allowing sustainable timber harvesting for Plum Creek for up to 15 years.
Conservation easements will restrict subdivision and home development on the vast majority of lands sold into private ownership. And maintaining public access for recreation will be a top priority. Neither the Conservancy nor The Trust for Public Land will retain long-term ownership of any lands.
I see, so Plum Creek can continue to log. Subdivision and home development will be “restricted” (and therefore not entirely prevented) on large parts of the land, and so presumably on the remaining minority, subdivision will be the norm?
So what exactly is the purpose of this “conservation” initiative again?
12:50 am, December 23rd, 2008
Hmm:
“Cats have a strong flavor. Dogs taste much better, but if you really want cat meat, I can have it delivered by tomorrow,” said the butcher, who gave only her surname, Huang.
[...]
The protesters’ indignation was whipped up by recent reports in Chinese newspapers about the cat meat industry. On Monday, the Southern Metropolis Daily—a Guangdong paper famous for its exposes and aggressive reporting—ran a story that said about 1,000 cats were transported by train to Guangdong each day.
1:09 pm, December 19th, 2008
Another day, another idiot move by Obama.
This time it was his selection of anti-gay pastor Rick Warren to deliver an inaugural prayer/swearing-in/whatever.
BUT, here’s what’s interesting… instead of just sitting and accepting, gay rights groups got angry and vocal. And Obama is now backpedaling.
Compare that to the reaction of NRDC and Sierra Club and others to the selection of anti-environment Salazar. They laud the choice and quietly clap. In their eyes, no wrong can come from Obama, our Lord and Savior.
Well, maybe the enviros need to learn NOT to just sit and take it from this increasingly out-of-touch President-Elect. Clearly the gay rights groups are onto something. I hope that the green groups can watch and learn. But that’s doubtful.
4:39 pm, December 18th, 2008
Today was an ugly day for the environment.
P.S., I am making this simple post to try to figure out HOW lots of pharmaceutical terms are stuffed onto this blog. See examples here… Wordpress hackers are out in force I guess.
5:59 pm, December 17th, 2008
In his introduction of Salazar:
Salazar, 53, is a former Colorado attorney general and executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. Obama said he is “a champion for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. . . Few are better equipped to meet the energy and natural resource challenges we face in the 21st century.”
We’ve had a champion of these folks in office for the past 8 years. Who will be the champion of endangered species, trees, and wild places? Not Salazar, that’s for sure.
Obama just doesn’t get it.
12:21 pm, December 17th, 2008
The little puppy dog wags its tail at Salazar (meanwhile, real environmentalists are flabbergasted):
Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director
Senator Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior:
“The Sierra Club is very pleased with the nomination of Ken Salazar to head the Interior Department. As a Westerner and a rancher, he understands the value of our public lands, parks, and wildlife and has been a vocal critic of the Bush Administration’s reckless efforts to sell-off our public lands to Big Oil and other special interests. Senator Salazar has been a leader in protecting places like the Roan Plateau and he has stood up against the Bush’s administration’s dangerous rush to develop oil shale in Colorado and across the West.
“Senator Salazar has also been a leading voice in calling for the development of the West’s vast solar, wind, and geothermal resources. He will make sure that we create the good-paying green jobs that will fuel our economic recovery without harming the public lands he will be charged with protecting.
“Senator Salazar will inherit an agency that has suffered from a pervasive rot under the Bush administration due to widespread corruption, simple incompetence, and severe underfunding. We are confident that Senator Salazar will work with President-Elect Obama to undo the damage of the Bush years and chart a course that will allow this vast agency to return to its proud legacy of protecting our last wild places, wildlife, and vast natural resources.”
12:19 pm, December 17th, 2008
Given that urban Obama and his East Coast coterie could care less about Interior, etc etc, perhaps the only hope for the environment IS a great depression… or, at the very least, deflation. Oh for the days when oil is cheap, and therefore Salazar-friendly extractive industries could care less about BLM lands, oh for the days when land swaps and development grinds to a halt, preserving vistas and endangered species.
Perhaps environmentalists need to hang their hat on such thoughts, because clearly the “change” that Obama has given us, in regards to the environment, is pretty much same old same old (save for some headline-grabbing “energy” initiatives).
(Of course, green energy DOES NOT equal environmentalism. Environmentalism is chiefly concerned with habitat, ecosystems, and endangered species. Insofar as climate change has a long-term impact on these things, sure, it is part of environmentalism, BUT IT IS NOT AND SHOULD NOT be the primary component. The short-term threats to habitat and species are far more about development, livestock, logging, extraction, sprawl, and fragmentation than they are about dumb platitudes like “energy independence” (what does that mean exactly? should we be “car independent” from japan?) and “greentech” (who cares? in 20 years we will be cursing the blight that is wind turbines).)
2:33 am, December 17th, 2008
Let me be clear about this idiot Coloradan dandy (you’ve seen him preening around in his bolo tie and Napoleon-come-lately cowboy hat, right?):
Arizonan Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity says: “The Department of the Interior desperately needs a strong, forward looking, reform-minded Secretary. Unfortunately, Ken Salazar is not that man. He endorsed George Bush’s selection of Gale Norton as Secretary of Interior, the very woman who initiated and encouraged the scandals that have rocked the Department of Interior. Virtually all of the misdeeds described in yesterday’s Inspector General expose occurred during the tenure of the person Ken Salazar advocated for the position he is now seeking.”
(Visual: This little pipsqueak in his cowboy hat and boots, his legs all splayed open and crossed like some tough rancher. But in reality he’s just some nebbish little lawyer, despite his supposed “ranching days” and 500 year family history, who capitulates and does whatever it takes to advance. Weighing this, weighing that… making tiny decisions about tiny things.)
Those fools who thought Barack Obama would bring change… how wrong you were!
(Why is it that Colorado elects such obvious morons? First it was that Ben Switch-Horse-Midstream Campbell. Then to replace him, the even more loathsome Salazar, he of lizard-name, rodent features, and detestable forgettable politics. Are the mincing brothers Salazar, mediocrity at its best, truly the folks who best represent the apparently less-than-great State of Colorado?)
1:48 am, December 17th, 2008
I can’t be bothered to write anything. After all, the writing is on the wall. Here I was lobbying about 10 hours per day (really) against Mike Thompson. And what happens? That droning President-elect apparently nominates someone even WORSE! Oh for the heady days of Mike Thompson… wow, I can’t believe I am saying that! But he would have been far, far better than the capitulating fop that is Ken Salazar.
And who was doing anything during this time? Not the Sierra Club, with milquetoast Carl Pope, not the NRDC, with its hurdy-gurdy Larry David LAsters. They did NOTHING. NOTHING.
Obama has no passion of interest for the environment. He has said as much. For him it is all about “green energy”. And the only reason he talks about that is the same reason that the aforementioned losers like Sierra Club and NRDC talk about it… for votes (or dollars)! But Obama knows little, and cares less, about, say, red superimposition, about downlisting atlantic salmon, or predation of springers at Bonneville, or WOPR, etc etc. And so he appoints the lizard king, Ken Salazar, to be his point man. And how great is that? Given that Salazar supported Norton, Gonzalez, and has little apparent brain activity.
So… I’ve written enough. Here, look how people respond:
This sums it up nicely:
TUCSON — It appears likely President-elect Barack Obama and his controversial Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will nominate conservative Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado to head the US Dept. of Interior.
Since no official announcement has yet been made, I urge Obama to make a better pick. Overall, I and other American conservationists who deal with Interior are disturbed, but mining, livestock, argibusiness and other industries who have dominated Interior for years are excited about Salazar, which should worry anyone concerned with the public-interest.
While Salazar has promoted a few decent environmental actions, his overall record is decidedly mixed, and is especially weak in the arenas most important to the next Secretary of the Interior: protecting scientific integrity, combating global warming, reforming energy development and protecting endangered species.
Salazar has voted against increased fuel efficiency standards for the US automobile fleet; voted to end protection for offshore oil drilling off of Florida’s coast; voted to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to ignore global warming impacts in their water development projects; voted against the repeal of tax breaks for ExxonMobil; voted to support subsidies the livestock industry and other users of public forest and BLM lands; threatened to sue the US Fish and Wildlife Service when its scientists determined the black-tailed prairie dog may be endangered; and fought efforts to increase protection for endangered species and the environment in the Farm Bill.
Some comments from Interior experts about Ken Salazar, with more coming out every hour:
From Reuters: Big oil executive ‘BP America Chairman and President Robert Malone… expressed approval for U.S. Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado, Obama’s nominee for secretary of the interior… Also, Malone called for access to the Outer Continental Shelf for energy exploration…’
From NPR: ‘The only ones pleased with the rumored pick were those in the agriculture and mining industries. During the campaign these folks, generally, were counted as supporters of Republican John McCain.’
“Salazar is the first name mentioned that we could support,” said Laura Skaer, executive director of the Northwest Mining Association.
“Of all the names mentioned, Salazar is the one we’re happiest with,” said Dan Keppen, head of the Family Farm Alliance. Note: Keppen was formerly the head of Klamath Water Users Association, the group that worked with the Bush administration to manipulate science and overturn salmon restoration efforts in the Klamath Basin (leading to the deaths of as many as 70,000 salmon before they could spawn in September of 2002). His current group was launched to be the lobby front for agribusiness interests that get Bureau of Reclamation water.
From the Arizona Daily Star: Patrick Bray of the (anti-conservation) Arizona Cattlemen’s Association on Salazar, “We feel that he understands the issues very well and that he would be a very viable candidate.”
Colorado wildlife biologist Dr. Nicole Rosmarino in Denver: “Ken Salazar does not bring the change we need at Interior. Salazar will not take strong stances on behalf of science and environmental protection and is not up to the task of undoing the enormous damage the Bush administration has done to public lands, endangered species, and the credibility of the Department of the Interior over the last 8 years.”
Also in the Star: Jon Marvel of the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project says: Salazar “will completely undermine Obama’s message of change. He will not bring change to the public lands of the western United States.” He called the appointment “a travesty.”
Coloradan Rob Edward of WildEarth Guardians says: “President Elect Obama is set to stick it to wildlife and public lands in the West, by appointing Senator (and rancher) Ken Salazar to head the Department of the Interior.”
Arizonan Ron Kearns, a former wildlife biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, an Interior Dept. agency, says: “As a 30-year Republican, I will regret having voted for Obama if this happens.”
Coloradan Phil Doe, who formerly worked with Interior agency Bureau of Reclamation says of Salazar: “He’s green washed himself of late with his stand on the BLM oil and gas leases, but he is at bottom the same cautious careerist he always has been, aimlessly testing each decision for its potential impact on his slow steady rise to the top of the pond.
“He is anathema to many Dems here, especially for his support of the the war, his avuncular embrace of the little torture maestro, (Alberto) Gonzalez.., and his insistence that he is the senator for rural America. The latter is code for big ranching and farming America, the same people who are rewarded lavishly every year with a bundle of goodies from Washington. It sure as hell doesn’t mean rural labor, among the poorest of the working poor. …he is outright disliked by activist Dems.
“One thing is for sure, he would make the traditional big farm and ranch interests happy. And it is probably from this group that his name surfaced. From my own vantage, I would make book that the O man’s promise of infrastructural restoration in the west would mean more dams and probably some irrigation at the public’s expense if Salazar could influence the nature of the expenditures, and why couldn’t he. He ain’t much, and there is a place reserved in hell for his kind, the parsers. The O man needs to toss the west a bone, and Salazar sure as hell isn’t it.”
Arizonan Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity says: “The Department of the Interior desperately needs a strong, forward looking, reform-minded Secretary. Unfortunately, Ken Salazar is not that man. He endorsed George Bush’s selection of Gale Norton as Secretary of Interior, the very woman who initiated and encouraged the scandals that have rocked the Department of Interior. Virtually all of the misdeeds described in yesterday’s Inspector General expose occurred during the tenure of the person Ken Salazar advocated for the position he is now seeking.”
“Obama’s choices for Secretary of Energy and his Climate Change Czar indicate a determined willingness to take on global warming. That team will be weakened by the addition of Ken Salazar who has fought against federal action on global warming, against higher fuel efficiency standards, and for increased oil drilling and oil subsidies.”
Also from Suckling: ‘In addition to his misstep on Norton, Salazar endorsed the elevation of William Myers III to the federal bench. Myers was a former Interior Department Solicitor and lobbyist for the ranching industry. Senator Leahy called him ”the most anti-environmental candidate for the bench I have seen in 37 years in the Senate.” Bizarrely, Salazar praised Myers’ “outstanding legal reasoning” regarding endangered species, Indian affairs, federal lands and water, timber, and fish and wildlife issues. The American Bar Association rated Meyers as “not qualified.” Salazar later supported Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General, introducing him at his Senate confirmation hearing.’
“One of the most important jobs of the Secretary of the Interior is to help pick dozens of critically important political appointees to oversee America’s conservation system. His past misjudgments of Norton, Meyers and Gonzales give us little confidence he will choose wisely in the future,” says Suckling.
As an ecologist and supporter of Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva as the best choice for Interior, at this time I don’t support Salazar, but I will give him a chance to change his ways if he is nominated and confirmed as Secretary.
If Obama nominates Salazar, add it to the questionable pick of Lisa Jackson for EPA for a somewhat shaky start for his energy and environmental agenda.
With all due respect Mr. Obama and transition team, these picks are not the most courageous, and are not ‘the change we need or can believe in’ on energy and the environment.
1:12 am, December 17th, 2008
Here:
…as are all oil, mining, and gas interests. Big Win for Big Business. From Bloomberg’s website tonight: “As senator, Salazar has supported oil and gas drilling on federal lands, although he has insisted on higher royalty payments from the companies and on stricter environmental protection in and around lands that are being developed.” Looks like Obama’s been sniffing some of that “DRILL, BABY, DRILL” nonsense. Sickening.
This appointment is very bad indeed. Ken Salazar is the wrong choice - he does not have the temperament necessary to un-tie many contentious knots at Interior - he will fold like one would expect of a wek-kneed moderate-right Democrat.
He’s a rancher - and will be in charge of the largest Department to administer livestock grazing (the most ecologically destructive and largest land-use on public lands) on 160 million acres of public lands (livestock grazing is largest non-point source of water pollution in country, contributes to species imperilment - as much as mining and logging combined, and is the primary contributor to desertification of landscapes in North America) it’s also the largest contributor to weed invasion on public lands - simply put, public land livestock grazing is an ecologically bankrupting proposition - and Obama just chose to make it a fox/hen-house regulatory relationship - just like we saw with Bush.
This is not good - I hope it can be undone.
If you think Salazar’s going to save the wolves you’d better purchase a ticket onto that space-ship. If you want reform on the wolf restoration field you’d better find a man willing to stand in the flame and do what’s right - hold to the science. Wolf restoration is the most politicized arena - and I’ve got news for you, Salazar’s going to fold - he’s the WRONG choice on wolves. That’s the point - the man is co-opted by ranching interests, who do you supposed pulled the strings on 10j ? What interest has been slaughtering wolves all over the west ? capitulation is the man’s style - and that’s something you can hang his cowboy hat on.
Are you aware of what “haying” is ? Hah ! “not permanent destruction”… yeah - good deal…
This is the point - the choice for Salazar is about politics, it’s about folding - avoiding controversy - and so long as that’s the goal - the wildlife and wild places are going to be compromised in half - then in half again - then in half again - in half… … what’s left ?
If you want science - you got the wrong guy.
President-elect Obama seems to have a shallow understanding of the environment, ecology and conservation. Thus, the new Secretary of The Interior will likely have much independence making natural-resource decisions. For that reason and others, the ideal appointee would be a strong, fearless leader who is both a conservationist and biologist.
2:51 am, December 16th, 2008
Sierra Club… you who have no tax-exempt status and therefore pontificate away for Obama. You who rally hard against Gale Norton. You who whine and whinge… well, where have you been? Now we have Ken Salazar at Interior… he of brotherly potato farming and prairie dog hating and wyoming range gas drilling and dull vapid vamping mediocrity.
Why was it 100+ minor, regional enviro groups had to circulate a letter promoting Raul Grijalva for Interior. Grijalva who penned huge documents on the Bush admins assault on public lands. Where was your name?
You silent, stupid, weighty thing… just plopping around with ineffective “global warming” and “green energy” and now, all lauds and ivy for Obama. Get critical! Get going! Come on you idiot thing, just sitting like some fat Californian all heavy and dulled, blubbery from “change”.
1:08 pm, December 15th, 2008
His anti-environment voting record is worse than Mike Thompson’s:
Colorado has demonstrated a profound lack of tolerance for the black-tailed prairie dog. State policies continue to allow and encourage the decimation of this animal. The black-tailed prairie dog is still designated by Colorado’s Department of Agriculture as a “pest” species that needs to be eradicated. Political opposition has been and continues to be intense, most visibly stemming from Governor Bill Owens, his Department of Natural Resources Director Greg Walcher, the Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar, and the Colorado Division of Wildlife. All of those individuals and agencies contradict the U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) finding that the black-tailed prairie dog is biologically imperiled. Instead, these individuals and agencies assert that prairie dogs are common, widespread and undeserving of federal protection. In fact, Greg Walcher, Ken Salazar, and the director of Colorado’s Department of Agriculture, Don Ament, threatened legal action if the USFWS listed the black-tailed prairie dog as a threatened species. The audacity of this threat is apparent when one remembers that the USFWS is required to base its decision solely on scientific, biological considerations. In other words, these Colorado policy makers do not care that this species is biologically threatened and are, in fact, demanding that the USFWS violate the Endangered Species Act and base its listing on political considerations.
Oh, and in case it isn’t obvious, Sec. of Interior is in chage of USFWS. So, for those who like prairie dogs and protecting species based on SCIENCE, you are outta luck. We have Gale Norton’s cohort, another anti-science loser, in at Interior.
Looks as though he has been offered the position, but not yet accepted.
One Democratic source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Salazar traveled to Chicago late last week, that he was offered the job by Obama and now must decide whether to accept it.
Salazar, inept senator and model of mediocrity, please do us all a favor and stay out of Interior. You are simply not appropriate for Interior. And, Obama (like you are reading this blog), you have done a disservice to the millions of people who voted for you and expected “change”. It is machine politicians like Salazar, and his idiotic infantile “fence-straddling”, that we’ve had enough of. There should be no political compromise when it comes to using SCIENCE.
12:48 pm, December 15th, 2008
After all, Salazar was Norton’s understudy at Colorado’s Attorney General’s office. Both are beholden to big mining and big ranching. Obama, you suck.
11:54 am, December 15th, 2008
Okay, a little digging, and his choice for Interior, Ken Salazar, is not good.
I didn’t support Obama because of his empty suit blather, particularly on the environment. These disastrous picks — a total buffoon for EPA and now an industry idiot for Interior — demonstrate that.
Lifetime 73 rating from LOCV.
Hell, even Mike Thompson had a better lifetime rating than that! (And as another person notes, that is only SOME issues.)
Hope this is wrong. He is another in the long line of Western politicians who pay ALOT of attention to the the traditional abusers of the public lands..grazing, mining, oil and gas. If true, this signals to me that all of Obama’s talk about change didn’t include the environmental issues out here;
same old same old, even if he is a Dem.
Ugh.
Look for more grazing, kiss wolf recovery good-bye, bison are damned, and if you hike-get rubber boots to protect you from the manure you’ll be treading through.
Ugh.
Can I take my general election vote back and vote for Nader instead? Obama is a loser.
We’ve got latinos, blacks, whites, asians. We’ve got women, gays, straights, men. We’ve got conservatives, republicans, moderates, centrists, democrats. All the bases covered right, right? NO. Where are the progressives? Where are actual conservationists in actual positions of power? Or will we just have more of this fox guarding the hen-house crap? Salazar, after all, is a born and bred rancher. His brother is a potato farmer (perhaps one of the most water intense crops). To appoint a rancher to head Interior, and thus BLM, is like having a Dow Chemical lobbyist run EPA.
10:09 am, December 15th, 2008
Don’t know much about him yet (apart from the fact that he supports guns in national parks). But he will be our next Secretary of Interior.
Well, our next head of EPA is either anti-environment or ineffective, so I am not expecting much when I dig into Salazar’s record. Obama just doesn’t get “environmental issues”, beyond the easy energy thing. Salazar is the guy who got lottery dollars to go to buy land… that was hugely cool, and the program was very innovative (though this might be a different program I am thinking about: where you could get tax credits for conserving land, and you could SELL those tax credits to other people… thus allowing cashflow-poor land owners to sell and get money from wealthy folks who do it for the credits). Again, I would prefer to see gov’t solutions, not “market forces” doing the conserving.
10:02 am, December 15th, 2008
Question of the day… Has anti-environment Mike Thompson, “Legislator of the Year” and member of Safari Club International… has he ever HIMSELF hunted in Africa for any of the Big 5? (Lion, leopard, cape buffalo, elephant, rhino).
This is an important question for a possible Secretary of the Interior.
10:58 am, December 12th, 2008
Dunno quite what to make of this, but it appears as though Pelosi is offering Grijalva a consolation prize and really going to the mat for her fellow NoCal Rep, anti-environment Mike Thompson:
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva should tell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to pound salt.
She just offered him a prestigious position on the House Ways and Means Committee.
But if he were to accept it, Rep. Mike Thompson – Pelosi’s fellow California Democrat – could move a step up in the contest for Interior secretary.
That must not happen.
10:09 am, December 12th, 2008
Let his advocacy be evidence:
Now, parts of Mr. Berry’s resume might draw some concern from the most ardent national park advocates. For starters, he’s tied to the American Recreation Coalition, which is a big proponent of motorized recreation in the parks. Most recently Mr. Berry was appointed to ARC’s Outdoor Resources Review Group, whose role is to “assess changes in recreation, recreation resources and recreation needs and formulate recommendations for the new Administration and the next Congress…”
[...]
Additionally, Mr. Berry apparently long has supported user fees.
He may be marginally better than Thompson, but not much!
12:52 pm, December 11th, 2008
That’s what I am lead to believe by their outrageous press release.
Erica Terence, Scott Harding, and Malena Marvin have done the unthinkable. They have endorsed Mike Thompson, making them the ONLY non-hunting environmental group that I can find who has endorsed this anti-environment conservative hunter.
You’ve got 106+ green groups behind Raul Grijalva. Then you’ve got Klamath Riverkeeper apparently teaming up with hunters to get Mike Thompson nominated to Secretary of the Interior.
Outrageous. Totally effin outrageous.
We will keep our eye on this “environmental” organization in the future.
If you have given any money to Klamath Riverkeeper, GIVE NOTHING FURTHER TO THEM! DEMAND YOUR DONATION BACK! If you have given anything to the Riverkeeper organization in general, GIVE NOTHING FURTHER TO THEM!
It is completely UNACCEPTABLE that even green groups start to support Bush-lite picks for Interior.
Starve ‘em out. We don’t need so-called “green” groups like this. Let them whittle away to nothing.
10:40 pm, December 10th, 2008
The environment loses out… big time.
Mike Thompson voted against reducing logging in Alaska’s Tongass rainforest (House 5).
Thompson repeatedly voted against limiting “predator control” which results in 100,000 dead coyotes, black bears, and cougars annually (House 6).
Thompson voted against limiting road building in Alaska’s Tongass Rainforest (House 6).
Thompson voted for the Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act, a BS giveaway to the timber industry to increase logging (House 11).
Thompson voted against safeguarding 3 million acres of grasslands (House 20).
Thompson voted to deny transfer of $23 million from US Forest timber sales to wildlife habitat management and watershed restoration (Senate vote 5).
Thompson voted to restrict public input on logging projects (Senate Bill 1283).
Thompson voted to exempt pit mines built during road construction from all environmental provisions (Senate Bill 273).
Thompson voted to resume sport hunting of mountain lions (despite twice being rejected by voters) (Senate Bill 28).
Thompson voted to allow local governments to ignore environmental laws (Senate Bill 19).
Thompson voted to repeal law that set clear standards for what is “recycled”, “biodegradable”, etc. (Senate Bill 426).
Thompson voted to eliminate inter-city rail funds (Senate Bill 160).
Thompson voted against protection of California’s native oaks (Assembly Bill 54).
Thompson voted against prohibiting use of 27 toxic pesticides (Senate Bill 520).
11:10 pm, December 9th, 2008
More on Mike Thompson’s environmental “credentials”:
In 2004, he voted against an amendment to an Interior appropriations bill intended to protect wildlife and old growth trees in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest by stopping taxpayer-subsidized logging road construction. The measure passed by a vote of 222-205, and he was the only California Democrat to vote against it. He also opposed an amendment to ban the act of bear-baiting in national forests and Bureau of Land Management lands.
He was also one of only 30 Democrats in 2006 to vote against an amendment to the Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act that would maintain areas of the national forests protected under the Roadless Rule. He also voted against another amendment that would have required the Forest Service to comply with environmental protection, endangered species, and historic preservation laws when conducting “salvage logging” operations in national forests. The amendment failed.
In the 110th Congress, he voted against an amendment to an Interior appropriations bill that would have closed a loophole in the Marine Mammal Protection Act allowing American hunters to import polar bear trophies from Canada. The amendment failed by a vote of 188-242.
Nice to see that my post about Thompson on DailyKos had some legs…
Thompson would be an absolute nightmare at Interior. He is bought and owned by hunting lobbyists.
Update: More folks coming out against Mike Thompson. This guy would be an absolute DISASTER at Interior.
12:48 pm, December 8th, 2008
Lots of recent speculation is indicating that the pivotal environmental role of Secretary of Interior is a contest between blue dog Rep Mike Thompson and Rep Raul Grijalva.
Thompson is supported by a variety of hunting groups; Grijalva is supported by a variety of environmental groups.
On paper, both appear to be pretty green. Thompson scored between 77% and 93% over the years at League of Conservation Voters. Grijalva has scored between 85 and 100%.
But simplistic percentages can be deceiving…
Mike Thompson takes money from hunting lobbyists Safari Club International (whose members hunt rhinos, lions, and elephants) and won their Hunting Heritage and Legislator of the Year awards. In fact, no other house member took more money than Mike Thompson from SCI… oh, apart from Alaska’s Don Young.
Raul Grijalva published a 26-page report entitled “The Bush Years: A Legacy of Failure for Our Public Lands”.
Mike Thompson, a vineyard owner (and therefore likely more sensitive to the needs of farming than of, say, endangered species), is pissing off local environmentalists:
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat said: “Thompson said the reduced river flow “wasn’t about salmon or water, it was about electoral votes in Oregon.”" The important political lesson to note here is that these farmers (and voters) were not in Mike Thompson’s district.
A real test of Mr. Thompson’s environmental credendials would be: is he willing to close down his vineyard and winery friends in his own district by no longer allowing them to suck water out of the rivers and aquifers? Ask the environmentalists who live on rivers like the Navarro about how much water is left for the Salmon once vineyards finish taking their sips. Ask environmentalists in Napa County about pesticides in ground water and runnoff.
Raul Grijalva has tried every which way to stop Bush policies, even invoking little-used provisions to try to stop uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.
Mike Thompson, on the other hand, voted AGAINST environmental exemptions for salvage logging (thus denying protections to roadless areas). Mike Thompson voted AGAINST diverting money from harmful clear-cutting to fish and wildlife restoration. Mike Thompson voted AGAINST limiting the mass killing of coyotes, bears, and cougars. Mike Thompson voted AGAINST Farm Conservation. Mike Thompson voted AGAINST protections for the Tongass National Forest.
As a blue dog Democrat, Mike Thompson favors “market forces” when it comes to environmentalism. He favors giving money to farmers and others to preserve endangered species habitats (rather than requiring that they preserve such habitat).
Obama has indicated that one of his key determinants for picking the Secretary of the Interior is whether that individual is a “sportsman” or not. Mike Thompson is indeed a sportsman, as indicated by the full-throated support of Safari Club International.
But Mike Thompson, on the issues, is NOT the right choice for Interior.
Raul Grijalva is the right choice.
Please go to change.gov, follow the links to contact them, and make your voice heard! (Here is another guy who thinks the same way.)
6:48 pm, December 7th, 2008
I went to a recent county foreclosure sale. Most of the parcels were isolated lots of land. One that was interesting was 60 acres in the middle of nowhere.
Before the auction, a soft-spoken man called attention to himself. He said that one of the properties for sale was surrounded by his land, that there was no legal access, no mineral rights. No matter. The price was bid and bid and bid. And the winning bidder coolly bid for all the remaining parcels, even after a second rancher spoke up about another parcel. The old rancher sighed at the end.
No doubt the winning bidder was an Ebayer or other guy looking to turn a quick buck (that’s at least my opinion). How can a land-rich and cash-poor rancher afford to expand his ranch? How can he survive?
Well, at least in Oregon this land won’t be developed into hundreds of subdivisions. That’s what happens in other states (an Ebayer or other speculator will buy a larger lot, split it, and sell the remains to homebuilders).
We need more and better land use safeguards to protect rural ways of life.
11:53 pm, May 7th, 2008
