Anything’s better than a “culture of substance abuse and promiscuity.” Right?

Yesterday, President-elect Obama nominated another member to his team of centrists (the only “rival” that I can see is Senator Clinton, who is also nothing if not a centrist).  If he’s approved by Congress, Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado will be the head of the Department of the Interior.

The department “manages and conserves most federally owned land, and administers programs related to indigenous populations of the United States and its insular territories” (yes, I had to look it up).  The department controls enormous amounts of resources — and collects $10 billion in royalties every year — and has influence over the protection of wildlife on federal land.

The NYT reports that evironmentalists are wary of Obama’s choice of Salazar.

Here’s the good news: the Department of the Interiro can’t get much worse than it’s been during the Bush administration.  “A culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” pervaded the Minerals Management Service’s royalty-in-kind program, which collects about $4 billion a year in oil and gas rather than cash royalties (NYT).  And Julie MacDonald, a high-ranking official in the Fish and Wildlife Service, “tainted nearly every decision made on the protection of endangered species over five years” — it was so bad that “encountering political interference from senior managers was called ‘getting MacDonalded.’”(HuffPo).

And here’s the bad news (NYT):

Oil and mining interests praised Mr. Salazar’s performance as a state official and as a senator, saying that he was not doctrinaire about the use of public lands. “Nothing in his record suggests he’s an ideologue,” said Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association. “Here’s a man who understands the issues, is open-minded and can see at least two sides of an issue.”

Mr. Popovich noted 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. (The legislation is pending.) He has also supported robust research on technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-burning power plants, something the coal industry favors. […]

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