Secretary Salazar: “Time has come for a clean energy future”
The Phoenix Sun
With all eco-eyes focused on the action (or, more properly,inaction) on a climate bill, other critical components of a cleanenergy economy can be overlooked. That was the case on Monday as thedominant news story concerned speculation about whether Republicanmembers of the Senate Committee on Energy and Public Works would showup for Tuesday’s climate bill markup session (they didn’t).
While that tragicomedy played out, a forum at the old EisenhowerExecutive Office Building adjacent to the White House went largelyunnoticed. The “Clean Energy Economy Forum” was hosted by theDepartment of the Interior, which manages one-fifth of all land in thenation (and 1.7 billion acres on the outer continental shelf). Giventhe shear immensity of these lands, DOI policies play an enormous rolein GHG emissions and in shaping what our nation’s energy future willlook like.
The forum was only the latest of Salazer’s efforts to make DOIpolicies conform to the realities of climate change and the parallelneed to develop renewable sources of energy.
In his second month in office (March), Salazar issued an order making renewable energy development a top DOI priority.
More recently, in mid-September, Salazar signed a secretarial order establishinga framework to coordinate climate change efforts throughout the vastDOI bureaucracy. Policy, data gathering and public education will allbe coordinated by the newly formed Climate Change Response Council.
Image: DOI Sec. Salazar signing order to address climate change
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