---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Bob Muldoon <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 3:56 PM
Subject: Sierra Club press release: Sierra Club Praises Nominations for Interior, Agriculture
To:
[log in to unmask] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 17, 2008
CONTACT: David Willett, 202.675.6698
Josh Dorner, 202.675.2384
Sierra Club Praises Salazar, Vilsack Nominations
Washington, D.C.-President-Elect Barack Obama today formally announced the
nominations of Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado for Secretary of the Interior
and former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture.
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."
Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture:
"The Sierra Club congratulates Governor Vilsack on his appointment to head
the Department of Agriculture. We look forward to working with him in this
new role. With a Secretary Vilsack overseeing the National Forest System and
the Conservation Reserve Program, we are optimistic that USDA can once again
become a responsible steward of wilderness and vital habitat for wildlife.
"Governor Vilsack can play an important role in helping to bring about the
clean energy economy in a way that benefits both farmers and rural
communities and our environment. The USDA can take the lead in moving us
past the corn-based ethanol of today toward the next-generation biofuels of
tomorrow. These next-generation biofuels will not just provide farmers with
new sources of income and help us break our dangerous dependence on oil, but
they will also help President-Elect Obama achieve his ambitious plans to
tackle global warming."
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