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PETITION: REMOVE KEN SALAZAR, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, FROM HIS POSITION AND THE CABINET

Posted by on November 27, 2012

PETITION: REMOVE KEN SALAZAR, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, FROM HIS POSITION AND THE CABINET

November 26 · Started by Carole Altendorf · Invite Friends

To: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AND THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES

December 17, 2008, the NY Times reported in an article titled “Environmentalists Wary of Obama’s Interior Pick”. The article states “Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado, will
inherit an agency demoralized by years of scandal, political interference and mismanagement.

He must deal with the sharp tension between those who seek to exploit public lands for energy, minerals and recreation and those who want to preserve the lands. He will be expected to restore scientific integrity to a department where it has repeatedly been compromised. He will be responsible for ending the department’s coziness with the industries it regulate and he will have to overcome skepticism among many environmentalists about his views on resource and wildlife issues.”

The article goes on to say “Mr. Salazar was not the first choice of environmentalists who openly pushed the appointment of Representative Raul Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, who has a strong record as a conservationist.”

Further, Luke Popvich, a skokesman for the National Mining Association is reported as “noting approvingly that Mr. Salazar had tried to engineer a deal in the Senate allowing mining companies and others to reclaim abandoned mines without fear of lawsuits

Kiernan Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, which tracks endangered species and habitat issues is quoted as saying “He is a right-of-center Democrat who often favors industry and big agricultures in battles over global warming, fuel efficiency and endangered species and habitat issues. He is very unlikely to bring significant change to the scandal-plagued Department of the Interior. It’s a very disappointing choice for a presidency which promised visionary change.”

Daniel R. Patterson, formerly an official of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management and now Southwest Regional Director of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said “Mr. Salazar has become the most controversial of Mr. Obama’s cabinet appointees. Salazar has a disturbingly weak conservation record, particularly on energy development, global warming, endangered wildlife and protecting scientific integrity…It’s no surprise oil and gas, mining, agribusiness and other polluting industries that have dominated Interior are supporting rancher Salazar—he’s their friend.” Mr. Patterson was elected prior to the article to the Arizona House of Representatives from Tucson and supports fellow Arizonian for Raul Grijalva for the [Department of] Interior job.”

Monday, November 26, 2012, the New York Times reported “Early on, Mr. Obama assigned Mr. Salazar to clean up the Minerals Management Service…responsible for regulating offshore drilling. The office’s history of corruption and coziness with the industry it is supposed to regulate has been the subject of years of scathing reports by government auditors, lurid headlines and a score of Congressional hearings. The promised reforms of the agency have been slow to arrive, and the subject of minerals service never came up at meetings leading to the new drilling policy, according to a senior administration official involved in the discussion. In a May 27 news conference, Mr. President, you scolded Mr. Salazar for his cowboy rhetoric and acknowledged your impatience with the pace of change at the minerals service.”

Mr. President, in this same article you are quoted as saying “reform was just too slow.”

This news article very adeptly set the stage for what has become the most disgraceful Secretary of the Interior. The article accurately portends the future of the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Salazar has NOT REPAIRED the scandal, political interference and mismanagement he inherited…he made it worse!

Under his mismanagement Mr. Salazar has removed wolves and polar bears, among others, from the Endangered Species List, resulting in needless mass slaughtering of Grey Wolves in many states by trophy hunters. The wolves finally attained adequate populations after being driven to extinction once before. Mr. Salazar, a former cattleman, is supporting the cattle lobbyists and the NRA in its attempt to rid America of its symbol of the wilderness…the wolf! He looks the other way when wolves are being lured out of Yellowstone National Park, only to be trapped and suffer where they face starvation, dehydration, attack by other animals and a long, tortuous slow death. Not only has he allowed our incredibly diverse wildlife to suffer, he has permanently destroyed their natural habitats. He allowed hunting to kill many species such as the brutal slaughter of horses, bears and wolves for the terrorizing sport of aerial hunting, catering to the special interests of hunters and cattle ranchers, rather than protecting vulnerable ecosystems.

He has exploited and approved the total destruction of our forests through logging (which President Roosevelt fought so hard to conserve), polluted our water and land to make corporate giants wealthy drilling for oil and allowed the mining and land erosion in many places, most notably, our national treasure, the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Further, he stopped a $150,000,000 highway project in Arizona because there was one spider on the Endangered Species List. Where are his priorities? What about the thousands of wildlife being slaughtered even as we write this petition to you, Mr. President?

Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is stacking the public citizen Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board with representatives of special interests who stand to profit from the capture and slaughter of America’s wild horses. Despite public polling that regularly documents Americans’ overwhelming opposition to horse slaughter, the BLM has appointed a pro-horse slaughter, anti-wild horse activists to represent the interests of the “General Public” on the board.
The agency also reappointed the past president of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association to the “Veterinary Medicine” slot on the advisory board. This citizen advisory board was rigged to set the stage for slaughtering the tens of thousands of mustangs that the agency has removed from public lands and
The last straw occurred in November, 2012, when Salazar was asked a question he did not like by a reporter for The Gazette of Colorado Springs, Colorado told the reporter, “If you do that to me again, I’ll punch you out.”

We cannot stand by any longer any watch America be destroyed single-handedly by this Secretary of the Interior.

We the people ask President Obama and Congress to:

1. Remove Ken Salazar from his position of Secretary of the Interior. Nowhere has GREED ever been more apparent by making decisions that involve our natural resources. He has done a terrible job of managing this once great land, coast to coast. The eyes of the world are looking upon the once great United States.

2. Investigate the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management. We ask that the investigation be done by an independent contractor and not the Departments’ Investigator to ensure a fair, thorough and unbiased investigation. The DOI/BLM has shown to be completely in conflict of interest with what their intended purposes are, and instead serve special interests.

3. We ask that citizen boards are equally balanced in that Cattle, Hunters, Environmentalists and Watchdog groups all be allowed the same sway in these groups. The BLM is spending 80 million dollars a year to effectively eradicate select species of animals so that Special interest groups may use the land instead. We ask that a restructuring of the department be made.

4. Appoint Raul Grijalva as the Secretary of the Interior.

Thank you.

more wild horse info at www.windwildhorse.com

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