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<p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/"><span style='font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#004276;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=153
height=23 id=NYTLogo src="cid:image001.gif@01C9A307.925125E0"
alt="New York Times"></span></a><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a name=articleBodyLink></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>Editorial<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:22.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Mr. Salazar’s Repair Mission <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:gray'>Published: March 11, 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Ken
Salazar, the new secretary of the interior, has been working overtime amending
or suspending bad policies dumped on the public during the Bush
administration’s waning days. That may not be entirely fulfilling for
someone eager to put his stamp on policy. But it is necessary work and, with
one disappointing exception — his decision to uphold a Bush rule removing
protections from certain wolf populations — very welcome. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><a name=secondParagraph></a><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Mr. Salazar’s efforts have received strong
support from President Obama. At the Interior Department’s 160th
anniversary celebration, the president pledged that the department’s
scientists — muzzled and overruled during the Bush years — would be
respected. He directed Mr. Salazar to review a Bush rule giving federal
agencies far too much latitude to move ahead with projects that could harm
threatened or endangered species without first consulting departmental
scientists. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Mr.
Salazar can’t reverse the rule, but he can ignore it while he decides
whether to ask Congress to overturn it or begin a new rulemaking process. In
the interim, species will receive the protections they always have. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Mr.
Salazar has made real progress on other fronts. He has already cancelled some
environmentally unsound oil and gas leases in Utah, and he has put the brakes
on oil shale and offshore oil drilling initiatives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Oil
shale is seen by some as a kind of energy holy grail, even though nobody has
figured out a clean, cost-effective way to extract it. Mr. Salazar has
suspended some small leases and pledged to rethink the Bush plan to set aside
two million acres of public land for future production. He says he is open to
research, but dismissed as “fantasy” the idea that oil shale is a
“panacea.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>He
also rejected Bush administration plans to open vast coastal waters to oil and
gas drilling. He agreed that some drilling was inevitable but ordered more time
for public comment, promised an updated assessment of reserves and insisted on
a broader strategy that would harness power from wind, waves and currents. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>We
hope that in the course of setting his new strategy Mr. Salazar will halt plans
for drilling in sensitive and previously untapped Alaskan waters, especially
Bristol Bay. We also urge him not to forget the wolf. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>The
Interior Department’s scientists say that wolf populations are healthy
enough, and state protections strong enough, to take the animal off the
endangered species list in Montana and Idaho. We do not share their confidence
in the states. De-listing allows for some hunting, and hunters in both places
are itching to start firing away. Mr. Salazar should be ready to restore
protections the instant the long-term survival of the species seems at risk.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Mill Valley, CA
94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
land</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810
cell</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><span style='color:blue'>bwl3@comcast.net</span></a></span></i></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><span style='color:blue'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="http://fotr.org/"><span style='color:blue'>http://www.fotr.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
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