“I am calling a two-year ‘Time-Out’ from all new mining claims in the Arizona Strip near the Grand Canyon,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, “because we have a responsibility to ensure we are developing our nation’s resources in a way that protects local communities, treasured landscapes, and our watersheds,” said Secretary Salazar.

Nearly one million acres of federal lands near the Grand Canyon have been set apart for deliberation for the next two years after careful consideration by the Department of Interior. Over the next two years, the Department of Interior will evaluate the land to determine whether it should be removed from new mining claims for the an additional twenty years.

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1872 saw the birth of a law that has governed American mining for over a century. It is the General Mining Act of 1872. While amendments have been made to the 1872 Act, we are still governed by what some would call “outdated” policy.

“We must find an approach to modernize the General Mining Law of 1872 and ensure that development occurs in a manner consistent with the needs of mining and the protection of the public, our public lands, and water resources,” said Interior Secretary Salazar today Before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

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Termed the “stream buffer zone,” the Bush administration ruling would reverse an earlier 1983 regulation that prohibited the dumping of mining waste from mountaintop removal operations within 100 feet of a stream, whether seasonal or perennial.

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Less than a week after the Interior Department published the findings of a report claiming that 25% of the nation’s electricity could be supplied by offshore wind farms, the Department also reached an agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over how the two agencies would handle the permitting and licensing of all types of renewable energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) of the United States.

On Thursday, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff signed a memorandum of understanding (pdf) that establishes a streamlined process by which Interior’s Minerals Management Service and the FERC will lease, license and regulate all renewable energy development activities on the OCS.

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As the majority of writers on Eco Child’s Play are parents of young children, we often focus our posts to this age group; however, green parenting is not only for the young.  What happens when our green children grow up and go to college?  Maybe they will grow up to be an activist like Tim DeChristopher and block the sale of public land for oil and gas drilling.

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Submitted on January 16, their last day of official business, the Bush plan called for a 60-day public comment period of its 5-year offshore drilling plan. Salazar will add another 180 days to the review process.

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In one of his first moves upon taking office, President Obama has ordered a freeze on all new or pending regulations from the Bush administration. The bold action could delay, and possibly even prevent, the removal of gray wolves from endangered species lists in more than a dozen states.

In a memorandum released by Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Obama has informed all department and agency heads that “…no proposed or final regulation should be sent to the Office of Federal Register for publication unless and until it has been reviewed and approved by a department or agency head appointed or designated by the President after noon on January 20, 2009.”

According to Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, the hiatus will give President Obama and new Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar the chance to reconsider the Bush administration’s plans to remove wolves from the endangered species list.

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OBAMA: Earlier this week I announced key members of the team that will help us seek new forms of energy, to build a new economy, to enhance our security and to leave our children a planet that is safer and cleaner.

Today I am extraordinarily pleased to announce two other key advisers and members of this team: Governor Tom Vilsack as secretary of agriculture and my dear friend from the Senate, Senator Ken Salazar , as secretary of the interior.

Together, they will serve as guardians of the American landscape on which the health of our economy and the well being of our families so heavily depend.

One of the great blessings bestowed upon us as Americans is the bounty of our natural environment, from the mountains and parks where we go hiking, to the rivers and streams where we go fishing, to the forests and fields where the proud tradition of hunting is passed on through the generations.

But our wide-open spaces are not only a blessing to be enjoyed, they’re the foundations of a brighter future. How we harness our natural resources, from the farmlands of Iowa to the springs of Colorado, will speak not only to our quality of life, but to our economic growth and our energy future.

It is time for a new kind of leadership in Washington that’s committed to using our lands in a responsible way to benefit all of our families.

That means ensuring that even as we are promoting development where it makes sense, we are also fulfilling our obligation to protect our natural resources.

It means ensuring that we are using our farmlands not only to strengthen our agricultural economy, but to grow advanced biofuels that will help make the United States energy independent.

And it means ensuring that the policies being shaped at the Departments of Agriculture and Interior are designed to serve not big agribusiness or Washington influence peddlers, but family farmers and the American people.

OBAMA: That’s the kind of leadership embodied by Ken Salazar and Tom Vilsack.

Ken will bring to the Department of Interior an abiding commitment to this land that we love. His family has farmed and ranched the same land in Colorado for five generations. As a senator from the great state of Colorado, he has been a champion for farmers, ranchers and rural communities, from building a clean energy economy to setting aside 250,000 acres of Rocky Mountain National Park as wilderness.

Before serving in the United States Senate, Ken was attorney general in Colorado, where he worked on a number of land, water and environmental issues.

As a water lawyer for a decade, Ken was also chosen to lead Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources. In that role, he promoted responsible water management, balanced use of our energy resources, and built one of the most successful land conservation efforts in our nation.

Few are better equipped to meet the energy and natural resource challenges we face in the 21st century. Among the many responsibilities Ken will bear as our next secretary of the interior is helping ensure that we finally live up to the treaty obligations that are owed to the first Americans. We need for than just a government-to-government relationship; we need a nation-to-nation relationship. And Ken and I will work together to make sure the tribal nations have a voice in this administration.

And one of Ken’s critical roles as well is going to be working with our energy team to make sure that we are using our natural resources in a sustainable way and developing the kind of energy independence that is so vital to our economy.

To lead a Department of Agriculture that helps unlock the potential of a 21st century agricultural economy, I can think of no one better than Tom Vilsack.

OBAMA: As governor of one of our most abundant farm states, he led with vision, promoting biotech to strengthen our farmers and fostering an agricultural economy of the future that not only grows the food we eat but the energy that we use.

Tom understands that the solution to our energy crisis will be found not in oil fields abroad but in our farm fields here at home. That’s the kind of leader I want in my Cabinet.

As our next secretary of agriculture, Tom will not only help ensure that rural America has a true partner in implementing the farm bill and pursuing agricultural research, but that Washington is looking out for everyone, from the small family farms that are feeding our communities to the large farms that are feeding the world.

When President Lincoln established the Department of Agriculture nearly a century and a half ago, he called it the “People’s Department,” for it meant — it was meant to serve the interests of those who lived off the land. And I know it will be the people’s department once more when Tom is at the helm.

With the appointments I announced earlier in the week and with those I’m announcing today, I am confident that we have the team that we need to make rural agenda America’s agenda; to create millions of new green jobs; to free our nation from its dependence on oil; and to help preserve this planet for our children.

In the end, that’s not only the responsibility of all Americans, it is our obligation as stewards of God’s Earth.

And with that, what I’d like to do is first introduce my great friend, Senator Ken Salazar .

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Salazar, a Democrat, is four years into his first term as U.S. Senator from Colorado and has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration’s energy and environmental policies, especially those relating to oil and gas development in the American West. When current Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced the draft rule designed to accelerate oil shale development across the West, Salazar reacted strongly, saying:

“The administration is trying to set the stage for a last-minute fire sale of commercial oil-shale leases in western Colorado, despite the fact that we are still years away from knowing if the technologies for developing oil shale on a commercial scale are even viable.”

Salazar’s knowledge and experience with public lands and water policy stretch back to his thirty years as a farmer and the eleven he spent practicing environmental and water law in a private practice. And that familiarity with water politics was no more evident than when he called out John McCain back in August, saying the Arizona senator’s remark about wanting to renegotiate the Colorado River Compact was “dangerously naive.”

“I think Salazar will probably revisit the multiple use doctrine for the management of our public lands,” said Colorado State University political scientist Andy Kear, via telephone. Kear, an expert on energy and public lands policy in the American West, said that Salazar would likely strike a more balanced approach in terms of recognizing energy, recreation, and ranching values. Instead of promoting the “Drill, baby, drill” mantra of resource depletion, Kear said Salazar’s motto might be closer to, “Ranch, recreate, and then think about drilling.”

Salazar’s support for clean energy has also been well established. Renewable energy advocates are well aware of Salazar’s work to help pass extensions of the renewable energy production and investment tax credits; as well as his his leadership in getting the small-wind tax credit passed and signed into law.

But Salazar’s mission will not be easy. The Colorado Senator will be charged with taking over a department not only saddled with a raft of last-minute Bush administration regulatory changes vigorously opposed by environmental groups, but also one with deep-seeded and intractable political battles and recent scandals that caught Interior Department employees and oil companies engaging in concerted illicit and corrupt behavior.

In announcing the other members of his environmental team today, Obama hinted that his choice for Interior Secretary would be soon to follow, but few would have guessed it to be this soon. The official announcement from Obama is likely to come some time later this week, but possible replacements are already being discussed to fill the open Senate seat. Some of those names include Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, outgoing Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, Andrew Romanoff, and Salazar’s younger brother, U.S. Representative John Salazar.

Image: Tim Hurst

McCain told The Pueblo Chieftan last week that he wants to renegotiate the 1922 Colorado River compact to re-appropriate water from the upper basin states, like Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming, where the river originates and give it to lower basin states like California, and his home state of Arizona. McCain said:

“I don’t think there’s any doubt the major, major issue is water and can be as important as oil. So the compact that is in effect, obviously, needs to be renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties. I think that there’s a movement amongst the governors to try, if not, quote, renegotiate, certainly adjust to the new realities of high growth, of greater demands on a scarcer resource.”

“Over my cold, dead, political carcass,” said Bob Schaffer, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. “The compact is the only protection Colorado has from several more politically powerful downstream states. Opening it for renegotiation would be the equivalent of a lamb discussing with a pack of wolves what should be on the dinner menu.”

John Redifer, political science professor at Mesa State College, said McCain’s position makes sense in light of Arizona’s needs, but not as a national policy. “I wonder if he is running for president of the United States or for something in Arizona when he makes those statements,” Redifer was quoted as saying in the Grand Junction Sentinel. “I’m really kind of surprised that someone running for president … that needs to carry the state of Colorado would make a statement like that.”

Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. said McCain’s comment was “dangerously naive.” Salazar added, “It reflects, in my view, a fundamental misunderstanding” of the importance water politics has in the arid West.”

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, also a Democrat, said McCain’s water comment could provide an opening for Democrats. “I was absolutely astonished that anybody running for president would suggest it, “Freudenthal said.

No matter which way you slice it, this has the potential to be a big political gaff. The sensitivity of the water issue is such that it can often overwhelm partisan allegiances. Across the American West there’s an old saying that goes, “Whiskey’s for drinkin’ and water’s for fightin’” Sen. McCain should have known better. Water in the Colorado Basin is not something that one tosses around with such disregard for its importance to upper basin users. A point that will certainly be hammered home next week in Denver at the Democratic National Convention.

Related Posts:

• Canadian Groups Battle Large-Scale Hydro Bound for US Electricity Markets
• Bush Administration Proposes ‘Fire Sale’ of Rocky Mtns. for Oil Shale Development
  
• Is the Colorado River Becoming Radioactive from Upstream Uranium Mines?
• Las Vegas Ripping Up Lawns to Save Water, But is it Enough?

Photo: Gonzo fan2007 via flickr under a Creative Commons License