Ken Salazar

I am pleased to be here today to present the details of the 2011 budget request for the Department of the Interior.

We know what happens is it ends up shorting States like Montana and others who are using that money for reclamation of abandoned mines.

You look at the water issues. You look at the land issues and you respect private property rights.

That is what we intend to do.

In the context of all the things I work on, standing up the renewable offshore wind capacity off the Atlantic is close to the very top of the priorities, and we will not leave any stone unturned to make sure that we do it better.

I think our staffs have essentially come up with agreement on the boundaries so we can avoid conflicts to the maximum extent.

Chairman Dicks has been an enormous and Herculean champion for all of the Interior missions.

President Obama has long said our energy program for the Nation has got to be comprehensive in nature.

A conservative court judge in the D.C. Circuit court writing the opinion said the environmental analysis for the 2007-2012 plan had not been appropriately done.

I disagree with the Norton-Leavitt Settlement because I do not think it was an appropriate way to essentially cede the authority of the Bureau of Land Management.

A solution is something we have to jump on right away.

there has been no direction from the White House to move forward with anything on the Antiquities Act, not one single monument

we should work with the local communities and with the Members of Congress to essentially do what we did last year

There are a number of different stressors affecting that ecosystem, and they include invasive species and water quality.

Our motto, Chairman Moran, is to really be smart from the start.

any major public land designation will be done through an open and public process that engages the public and Members of Congress.

Let me say all of you are correct. It is a huge issue that we have a very unique opportunity in history to resolve, and it has been a problem that has built up over 100 years.

We ought to look at those factors rather than just pumping, because I don't think the answer is as simplistic as turning off the pumps.

We are getting close to the point where we will have an announcement on the Outer Continental Shelf.

In the context of all the things I work on, standing up the renewable offshore wind capacity off the Atlantic is close to the very top of the priorities.

Let me also assure you of the following. That is that, the template that you used with the Washington County Wilderness legislation ... I think you were a pioneer in doing what you were able to do in Washington County.

No. 2, let me assure you that there is no direction from the White House on any of this for the Department of the Interior--zero, nada, nothing, OK? It just isn't there.

We know that with smart conservation approaches we can solve these problems and we are committed to do it.

It is important to note the historical context of this, that before I became Secretary of the Interior, there were no rules and really no program for offshore wind.

to Senator Leahy, who took me into Jordan and lots of other places, and under his wing;