John Salazar

There's no substitute for good science to guide the kinds of issues that you talk about with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

I have a healthy respect for the Second Amendment and the rights that come with the Second Amendment.

The debate about global warming is over and we need to move forward with an agenda that addresses climate change.

The fact that we have not had an Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs in the Department of Interior for 4 years is, frankly, a slap in the face to the Native American communities.

I would hope that one of the things that you can do, Senator Menendez and the rest of this committee, is not to look at this Department as a Department of the West, because it is not.

The Endangered Species Act is an important law, and I think it has, in fact, worked in a way to preserve God's given creations

I would not be taking this job, Senator Sanders, if this was about talk and no action.

There are some realities that are going to hit this committee, the Members of the Congress, the President-elect and all of us, and that is, that we are in some very tough economic times.

We cannot let bureaucratic impediments or the balkanization of the Federal Government essentially stand in the way of results.

I would not have taken this job if I was not given the assignment to help craft the energy moon shot.

You know, there is no doubt that climate change and global warming is having an impact on a whole host of important natural features of this world, including the species that we have.

We want to make sure that States remain and are allowed to maintain an option of when and where drilling should take place.

Absolutely. It is the President-elect's mission, and we will be part of that mission as we take this energy moon shot.

We need to do everything we can to make sure that we achieve the vision of John Kennedy and Stuart Udall.

I've been an advocate, for a long time, for the full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The next Secretary of Interior is going to need to bring with them an abundance of selflessness and integrity, and Colorado's senior Senator has these qualities to spare.

I think that solar has got to be one of the crown jewels, if you will, as we move forward, to creating this house of energy independence.

I will assure you that the people that we will bring in to oversee those efforts will be people who will make the calls based on the balls and strikes of science, not on the balls and strikes of politics.

It is an honor and a privilege to come before you today, feelings matched only by the pride I bring to this chamber as I introduce to you President-elect Obama's nominee for Secretary of the United States Department of Interior, my…

This is an imperative agenda because our environmental and economic and national security depend on our success on this agenda.

Many of those have lost population and even in the good times of the 1990s, while the big cities were thriving and people were making a lot of money, the people in rural America were being forgotten.

Part of what we will do for our economic renaissance here in America is take on a new energy economy.

Water is the lifeblood of the West

We do need stronger standards than what are set forth in the 1872 mining law.

I think solar has great potential. It's not just solar photovoltaic, but also the concentrated solar power that you speak about.