Video- President Obama Signs the America's Great Outdoors Memorandum

'Cause I had no idea what the hell this was, but now I like very much.

President Obama launched the America's Great Outdoors initiative Friday, an attempt to reshape U.S. conservation policy at a time when the nation is facing new environmental threats but the government is hard-pressed to afford new spending programs.

In a brief speech at the Interior Department, Obama said he intends to build on "a breathtaking legacy of conservation that still enhances our lives." He said the tradition began with Theodore Roosevelt, whom he described as "one of my favorite presidents," although he added, "I will probably never shoot a bear."

Obama said the nation's growing population, pollution and other factors are "putting a rising strain on our lands." He said government cannot address conservation issues alone, and he urged private industry, local communities, Native American leaders and volunteers to help protect the outdoors.

(snip)

Obama signed a memorandum sketching out broad goals that the administration hopes to pursue in the next few years: forming coalitions with state and local governments and the private sector; encouraging outdoor recreation by Americans; connecting wildlife migration corridors; and encouraging the sustainable use of private land.

Video- President Obama speaks on health care reform at Dept of Interior

Federal scientists: Limit offshore drilling plans

By GottaLaff

Once again, attempts are being made to eradicate the ugly, toxic BushCo stain:

The federal government's top ocean scientists are urging the Interior Department to drastically reduce plans to open the coast to offshore oil and gas drilling, citing threats to marine life and potentially devastating effects of oil spills in Arctic waters.

The recommendations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are informal and not binding. But if adopted, they would restrict development in some of the nation's most resource-rich untapped offshore areas and mark a significant departure from the pro-drilling policies of the George W. Bush administration. They also give added -- and official -- weight to environmentalists' concerns.

It's like being held captive and suddenly having the gag and shackles removed. Breathing again sure feels swell, doesn't it?

In a letter sent to Interior officials last month, NOAA recommended excluding large tracts of the Alaska coast, the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico from Interior's draft offshore drilling plan for 2010 to 2015.

NOAA recommends establishing buffer zones around the Southern California Ecological Preserve off Santa Barbara. In addition, it suggests that its broader recommendations, such as taking greater account of drilling's effects on marine life, could affect potential lease sales off California.

The agency calls for a ban on drilling in the Arctic until oil companies greatly improve their ability to prevent and clean up oil spills. And it asks Interior to delay new drilling plans until an Obama administration ocean policy task force completes its work late this year.

The comments, dated Sept. 9 and obtained by the Washington Bureau, were included in a letter to Interior officials from NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco. They include an often sharp critique of the offshore leasing plan, developed under Bush, that would open swaths of the California coast and other areas to new drilling.

NOAA says the leasing plan's assessment of the risks of drilling, such as oil spills, is "understated and generally not supported or referenced."

Isn't it amazing how wrong BushCo was about so many issues, yet how little resistance they got while in office? Cronyism sure comes in handy.

NOAA urges the Minerals Management Service -- the Interior division that handles offshore drilling -- to consider ocean ecosystems, coastal communities and other environmental factors when finalizing a leasing plan.

The agency stresses the challenges of cleaning up an oil spill in remote, icy waters, which NOAA says would be substantially more difficult than cleaning up a spill elsewhere.

The recommendations highlight the competing pressures on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as he weighs whether to amend the Bush-era leasing plan.

Let's see: Profits for Big Oil v. the health of the planet.

A "very ticked-off" Harry Reid Uses Franken as Threat

By GottaLaff

A follow-up of sorts to my previous post, just below. Reid should do the same for Dawn Johnsen's nomination:

A "very ticked-off" Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) predicted that the nominee for the Interior Department's number two post "will be approved despite the lockstep opposition" of Senate Republicans, reports Politico.

Said Reid: "We will confirm David Hayes. If I have to wait until Al Franken comes, we will confirm David Hayes."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was equally ticked off after a vote on the Hayes nomination failed, according to NBC News.

Said Salazar: "This was a tired vote of bitter obstructionism. It may be uncomfortable for some to watch us have to clean up mess after mess -- from corruption to lawbreaking -- that is the previous administration's legacy at Interior, but to cast a vote against such a qualified and fine person is the height of cynicism."

Sarah Palin foe gets administration job

By GottaLaff

Isn't it ironic....

Alaska State Sen. Kim Elton, one of the leading officials to pursue an investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin during the heat of the presidential campaign, has taken a high-level job in the Interior Department.

Limelight Sarah:

“Senator Elton pledged his allegiance to President Obama last summer” [...] "We wish him well as he moves on and hope that he uses this job for Alaska’s benefit.”

Nice promotion, Senator Elton. Congrats:

Elton will serve as Director of Alaska Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

President Obama Speaks at the 160th Anniversary of the Interior Dept.

Gracias de FDL un otra vez.

Obama shoots hoops … at Department of the Interior

By GottaLaff

President Obama returns from a game of basketball on Saturday.

B-ball at the D of I:

President Obama and long-time friend Marty Nesbitt shot hoops Saturday at a basketball court inside the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Press aide Ben Finkenbinder, who left the game drenched in sweat, teamed up with Obama on the court. Another Obama staffer and Reggie Love, an Obama aide and former basketball player at Duke University, were also seen leaving the game.

Obama wore workout clothes and a White Sox hat to the game.

Must be a really slow news day.

Native American tribal issues to be a priority for President Obama

By GottaLaff

The first lady was given a Native American shawl during her visit to the Interior Department Monday.

In case you missed Michelle Obama's speech today, here's one of the good parts:

President Barack Obama intends to add a senior policy adviser for Native American affairs to his White House staff shortly, first lady Michelle Obama revealed Monday.

The first lady made the announcement while speaking to employees at the Interior Department — the latest stop in her ongoing meet-and-greet tour of federal departments and agencies.

"Barack has pledged to honor the unique government-to-government relationship between tribes and the federal government," she said. The new senior staffer "will be tasked to work with tribes (on) issues such as sovereignty, health care (and) education — all central to the well-being of Native American families and the prosperity of tribes all across this country."

Interior Dept. rule allowing guns in national parks may violate White House directive

By GottaLaff

This administration is so stupid that not once but twice, it violated its own directives:

Earlier this month, the Department of Interior overturned a Reagan-era regulation, allowing loaded firearms at most national park sites such as the National Mall. Yesterday, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence sued the administration, saying the rule “jeopardizes the safety of park visitors in violation of federal law.”

This news release notes the violation by Interior. Here's the gist of it:

The suit charges that the Interior Department violated several federal laws in its rush to implement the rule before President Bush leaves office, including failing to conduct any environmental review of the harm that the rule will cause, as is required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The Department also violated a White House directive that no rules should be issued after November 1, 2008, except in “extraordinary circumstances,” issuing the last-minute rule change on December 10, 2008.

BushCo's One Big Important Accomplishment: It's the administration that violates its own directives better than any other!

The ugly Bush stain: Interior Dept. Changes Rule to Remove Congress Veto edition

By GottaLaff

That putrid whiff of flatulence you smell? It's Bush... again:

'The revision of the rule eliminates all references to Congressional authority.' Interior Dept. Changes Rule to Remove Congress Veto

In another regulatory action in the waning days of the Bush dictatorship, the Interior Department on Thursday unveiled a new rule that challenges Congress’s authority to prevent mining planned on public lands. Congress has emergency power to stop mineral development, and has used it six times in the last 32 years. The most recent was in June, when it put a three-year moratorium on uranium mining on one million acres near the Grand Canyon. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has ignored that Congressional directive, saying it was procedurally flawed. The revision of the rule eliminates all references to Congressional authority.

Bush can have all the farewell, maudlin, revisionist interviews he wants, but nothing... nothing... will eliminate the stench he leaves behind after eight years of infecting this country with a rotting, decomposing morgue full of felons hell bent on vaporizing the Constitution.

Big ol' Ethics Scandal at Interior Dept.: Sex, drugs, gifts, Big Oil

By GottaLaff

What? Scandal at BushCo? No way! ... ... Okay, way:

As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.

Drill! Drill! Drill! I meant that in a non-sexual way.

In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government’s largest sources of revenue other than taxes.

“A culture of ethical failure” besets the agency, Mr. Devaney wrote in a cover memo.

How redundant of them.

The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch. [...]

The investigations are the latest installment in a series of scathing probes of the troubled program’s management and competence in recent years. While previous reports have focused on problems the agency has had in collecting millions of dollars owed to the Treasury, the new set of reports raises questions about the integrity and behavior of the agency’s officials.

In one of the new reports, investigators conclude that a key supervisor at the agency’s minerals revenue management office worked together with two aides to steer a lucrative consulting contract to one of the aides after he retired, violating competitive procurement rules.

Two other reports focus on “a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” and unethical behavior in the service’s royalty-in-kind program. That part of the agency collects about $4 billion a year in the form of oil and gas rather than cash royalties.

[...]

One of the reports says that the officials viewed themselves as exempt from [...] limits, indulging themselves in the expense-account-fueled world of oil and gas executives.

In addition, the report alleges that eight royalty-program officials accepted gifts from energy companies whose value exceeded limits set by ethics rules — including golf, ski and paintball outings; meals and drinks; and tickets to a Toby Keith concert, a Houston Texans football game and a Colorado Rockies baseball game.

The investigation also concluded that several of the officials “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.”

The investigation separately found that the program’s manager mixed official and personal business, and took money from a technical services firm in exchange for urging oil companies to hire the firm. In sometimes lurid detail, the report accuses him of having intimate relations with two subordinates, one of whom regularly sold him cocaine.

The culture of the organization “appeared to be devoid of both the ethical standards and internal controls sufficient to protect the integrity of this vital revenue-producing program,” one report said.[...]

But two of the highest-ranking officials who were targets of the investigations will apparently escape sanction. Both retired during the investigation, rendering them safe from any administrative punishment, and the Justice Department has declined to prosecute them on the charges suggested by the inspector general. [...]

On one occasion in 2002, the report said, two of the officials who marketed taxpayers’ oil got so drunk at a daytime golfing event sponsored by Shell that they could not drive to their hotels and were put up in Shell-provided lodging.

Sidebar: Shell has been awarded a $4bn contract in the south of the country to supply gas for Iraqi domestic use but also for export. Back to our story:

While most of the oil companies allowed investigators to interview their employees, the cover letter noted, one major firm, Chevron, would not cooperate.

U.S. Interior Department sued over Wyoming drilling

By GottaLaff

Keep shoving ANWR, coastlines, and other potential drilling sites down our throats, BushCo/McCainCo, because it's obvious that the fragile environment will be preserved, just as it has in Wyoming. Ooops:

As President Bush called for increased oil and gas drilling in the Rocky Mountain West and offshore, an environmental group launched a legal battle Wednesday against the Interior Department, saying the agency broke its promise to limit environmental damage from natural gas and oil development on the Pinedale Anticline, one of the country's top reserves. [...] The suit alleges the [Bureau of Land Management], a division of the Interior Department, "failed unequivocally" to comply with its plans to monitor and mitigate the effects of gas and oil drilling on wildlife across the Anticline and violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Federal Land Policy and Management Act.

See how carefully those Tiptoey Drillers tread on pristine land? Those tiny little footprints of Big Oil couldn't hurt a fly! But mule deer and antelope? That's another story:

The Bush administration has highlighted the Anticline, a scrub-land mesa south of Jackson, as a model for oil and gas exploration in the Rocky Mountain West. But massive development of oil and gas fields there has pushed up ozone levels and broken up the habitat of mule deer, pronghorn antelope and sage grouse, according to a study by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and the environmental group that filed suit.

Promises, promises:

"They haven't been following the processes that they put in place that would address impacts to the natural resources of the area and would comply with their obligations under federal law," said Katie McKalip, a spokeswoman for the conservation group.

Here's a thought: Alternative energy sources. I'm sure if BushCo looks hard enough, they could find someone, anyone, with enough expertise on the subjectformerVicePresidentandglobalwarming expertAlGore.

"We really minimize the amount of habitat fragmentation and surface disturbance due to the drilling . . ." Matheny said. "Since then, the deer population stabilized and has started to rebound when we operate this way."

A 2006 report showed the deer population declined 46% since 2000, the suit said. The study was industry-funded and performed by Western EcoSystems Technology Inc.

Al has a few ideas. All BushCo/McCainCo has to do is look him up.