By Michael Riley/Denver Post

WASHINGTON — Interior secretary-designate Ken Salazar vowed Thursday to reorient the Department of the Interior from a hive of special interests that marked the Bush administration to one based on integrity and the rule of science.

Sen. Salazar, a Denver Democrat, hit a laundry list of
priorities in the opening statement of his confirmation
hearing: reorienting Interior from a focus on fossil fuel toward alternative energy; improving relations with American
Indians; and creating a new youth conservation corps.

But he also launched a broad indictment of the way the department was managed under Bush, quoting a 2006 Inspector General report that said: “Short of a crime, anything goes at the highest level of the Department of Interior.”

“We will be working on that beginning Day One,” Salazar (pictured in center with Colorado Sen., Mark Udall, on left and brother, Rep. John Salazar, on right) said of the ethical lapses at the department, which have included accusations of partying and sex between energy lobbyists and department employees that decide the fate of leases.

Salazar’s nomination is anticipated to be a largely smooth affair, in part because he is seen as a pragmatist on many of hot-button issues, including energy development.

Few of the Republican members even showed up for the hearing, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., joked at one point that it was turning into “a full-fledged bouquet-tossing festival.”

Still, Salazar did face some pointed questions about oil-shale development and off-shore drilling, two issues that the energy industry is watching carefully to judge how far Salazar and Barack Obama plan to pull back from Bush’s full-throated development of fossil fuels.

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