Washington (Platts)--22Jan2009

US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday that the US "is going to
become energy independent and be set free from its addiction to foreign oil."

In an address to agency employees, Salazar said the Obama
administration's proposed economic stimulus package "will move us forward into
a new energy frontier."

The Department of the Interior will have a role including the siting of
renewable energy facilities and transmission lines, he said.

"Oil and gas will be a very meaningful part" of that energy future
though, Salazar said. "We can't move forward" without oil and gas having a
role, he said.

Salazar said that there is a "whole host of things we can do," to improve
the environmental footprint of fossil fuels, including carbon capture and
sequestration.

A former member of the Senate representing Colorado, Salazar made the
comments as he addressed Interior employees en masse for the first time since
his confirmation in the position by his former chamber on January 20.

Earlier in his address to the Interior employees, Salazar took the
leaders of the agency under former President Bush to task.

He said Interior "suffered from ethical lapses and criminal
activities at the highest level," under the previous administration.

Those activities have unfairly "painted a picture on the backs of career
employees because of the actions of political employees," Salazar said. "That
era is changing."

Salazar was a leading champion in the Senate of protecting the scenic
Roan Plateau from oil and natural gas drilling. Though he is supportive of
domestic energy production including on the Outer Continental Shelf, Salazar
has also been reluctant to push ahead with oil shale production in the
mountain west.

On Wednesday, he named former federal prosecutor Tom Strickland as his
chief of staff. Strickland is a Denver attorney who twice ran unsuccessfully
for the Senate.

Salazar declined to say whether he would roll back controversial
regulations issued by the Bush administration including dealing with
coal-related mountain-top clearing and the endangered species.

He said he hasn't had an opportunity to discuss the regulations who the
staff who wrote them. "I'm not prepared to say what we'd do with any of them,"
he said.

In the speech, he also declined to say what he plans to do regarding a
draft five-year Outer Continental Shelf leasing plan issued by the Bush
Administration just days before it left office, other than to review it.

The plan includes areas that were under congressional and executive
branch moratoria lifted in 2008.

"It's something we'll take a look at," he said. "There are appropriate
places for drilling and places we ought not to drill. It's something we'll
take a look at as part of our new energy program."

The department can issue the plan as drafted, amend it, or shelve it.

Talking to reporters after the speech (story, 1746 GMT), Salazar said:
"We will review the five-year plan. We will take a look at it and make some
decisions on how to move forward."

--Gerald Karey, gerry_karey@platts.com