Kenneth Lee Salazar

“ As President Obama said in his inaugural address, we live in a time when changing the way we do business is not simply an option. It is a necessity. Our country faces its biggest challenges in more than a generation. There is much reason, however, for hope in America. And that hope in America lies in the hearts and the minds of the people of this great nation and in the hearts and minds of the people of this department. ”

“ It will be clear that we will no longer tolerate those types of lapses at any level of government, from political appointees or career employees. This is only the first step of our long-term effort to enact comprehensive top-to-bottom reforms within the Department of Interior. The American people should be proud of their government, all of their government. Those who work for the government should be proud of their service to the American people. ”

“ When we think about Hezbollah, Hamas and organizations that are out there, trying to destroy our way of life, and how we are putting our troops in harms way in Afghanistan and Iraq and many other places around the world, the question arises: where is the money coming from that is fueling that war against America today? Much of that money, frankly, is coming from the oil that we are buying here in the United States of America today. So our national security requires us to move forward to energy independence in a real way. ”

“ One of the signature issues that President Obama will work on very hard, has worked on very hard, and will continue to work on very hard is the development of a comprehensive energy strategy. We need to address the economic opportunity here at home, the environmental insecurity that comes from global warming, and also the national security issues. And so, as we move forward with the development of our oil and gas resources, both onshore and offshore, it has to be a part of a set of a comprehensive energy program. ”

“ So in addition to reviewing the cases of those individuals, we will examine a fundamental restructuring of MMS’s royalty program so that taxpayers get their fair share from the development of natural resources, like oil and natural gas, on our public lands. Last year, this office alone collected $23 billion on behalf of the American taxpayer. All ideas for reform will be on the table. We need a system that delivers a fair value to the taxpayer, is straightforward and transparent, and is less vulnerable to the type of abuses we have seen. ”

“ It is remarkable that with every new president, the entire leadership of the government of America changes. And with a department as large and as complex as the Department of the Interior, it is important that there be as seamless as a transition as possible. ”

“ All of us face ethical choices every day in the conduct of our business. I urge you to seek the assistance of your bureau or office ethics official who, along with the Department Ethics Office, are ready to assist you in providing ethics guidance to help you avoid even the appearance of impropriety in carrying out your work. Only authorized ethics officials may interpret ethics rules and statutes, and only they can provide authoritative and protective advice for your questions. ”

“ The truth is the Department and its agencies touch all of the people of America. It protects treasured landscapes of our country from coast to coast. It provides the bulk of our energy that heats our homes and our businesses, powers our commerce and essentially enables our way of life here in America. ”

“ As you saw on the campaign trail with my good friend, now president, Barack Obama, and my other good friend, Senator John McCain, there was a lot of conversation about the reality of global warming and the fact that we had to do something about it. At its core, what we do about global warming is what we do with our energy future. ”

“ To the extent there was any confusion about applicable government ethics standards or guidance, the Code of Conduct clarifies the ethics standards to which all employees are bound. There will be no exceptions. ”

“ If we move forward with an energy agenda, we can create economic opportunity here at home because we can be spending dollars here in the United States of America, instead of sending hundreds of billions of dollars to the Middle East and other places where they have the oil reserves. ”

“ Some employees engaged in blatant and criminal conflicts of interest and self-dealing. It is one of the worst examples of corruption, abuse and of government putting special interests before the public interest. ”

“ We are a department with huge assets. These are assets belonging to the American people that you oversee and husband. At the end of the day, they are going to be part of what allows us to take the moon shot to energy independence and deal with so many of the challenges that America faces today. ”

“ First, we must help our nation reduce its dependence on foreign oil. This is an absolute imperative of our time. I sat on the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Energy Committee for the last four years and we worked on these issues. I can tell you that there are inescapable forces on America today that will ensure that we don’t step backwards in the way that we did in the 1970s and in the 1980s. ”

“ As we move forward into that energy future, it will be important for all of us to understand that our oil and gas and coal resources are very much a part of the equation for that future. We cannot get from here to there without, frankly, developing the oil and gas resources that we have here in this nation – both on our lands as well as in some selected areas in the offshore area. ”

“ Let me also say that our Native American communities are very important to us. We have more than 500 tribes across this country to whom this department has a sacred responsibility assigned to it by law. We have a trust responsibility for the Indian Tribes of America. It will be a high priority of mine and I look forward to working with those of you who work in that part of the department and with the new Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, as we move forward with that agenda. ”

“ So we're taking a look at that, and tomorrow we'll have some additional announcements on where we want to take all those issues. Question: But are they political appointees, or are they career people who are still working for you? ”

“ Whether we are talking about renewable energy facilities such as solar, geothermal or wind or transmission lines across our public land that will bring that energy to the places where it is going to be used, there will be significant investments as we move forward with this economic recovery program. ”

“ The package, which hopefully will be completed in the several weeks, will include what will be a historic first time investment in our National Park System, in our dams, in our trail systems, and other aspects of this department. As it takes formation, it is going to give us all who are assembled here today and those who are watching across the country a great opportunity to do those things people have dreamt about but have simply not been able to do over many, many decades. ”

“ We are going to set America free once and for all from our addiction to foreign oil. I need your help to get that done. Are you going to help me?
We must also do a lot more with a whole host of other issues including dealing with our water issues, and not just in the West. It used to be that most of water issues were out in the West on the Colorado River and a whole host of other projects that I have worked on in the past, including the Animas-La Plata project. ”

“ Secondly, our environmental security requires us to move forward. It was not so long ago when there were big debates on the floor of the U.S. Senate. A number of my colleagues in the Senate basically said that global warming was really not an issue, that we were just in a dry period of time. ”