May 14, 2009 01:58 AM UTC

Republicans, Oil Industry Messing With Salazar

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post reports, it was good to be a Senator, but:

Senate Republicans blocked an end-run attempt to confirm David Hayes as Deputy Secretary of Interior in a contentious vote this morning, handing his potential future boss, Ken Salazar, a significant political defeat.

Salazar called the vote “the height of cynicism” and testily defended his attempts “to clean up mess after mess” left behind by Bush appointees who led the department for eight years.

The confirmation of Hayes has become a flashpoint in a growing battle over the direction Salazar has taken as head of Interior, reversing key Bush administration decisions on oil shale, the fast-tracking off shore drilling, the Endangered Species Act and other issues.

Majority leader Harry Reid had attempted to invoke cloture on Hayes confirmation, requiring a super 60-vote majority, but the vote failed in the face of several Democratic absences and near unanimous Republican opposition…

This goes back to a decision Salazar made in early February to cancel oil and gas leases near national parks and other ecologically sensitive places in Utah–leases approved by the Bush administration. Salazar’s move was praised by environmentalists both in Utah and elsewhere; but it greatly upset the oil industry, and Utah’s Sen. Robert Bennett (note spelling)–Senators have a great deal of power in this situation, as Salazar knows well.

Salazar has encountered more trouble from Senate Republicans getting his top staff confirmed than most other departments, a fact that’s directly attributable to his swift moves to undo the worst of the Bush administration’s energy policies. It’s too bad this isn’t as sexy a political story now that Salazar is Interior Secretary instead of a Senator, and we’re surprised to not be seeing the enviros, local or national, jumping up to defend Salazar and his appointees from the Robert Bennetts of the world–he probably needs their help now more than ever.