When Sally Jewell was nominated to be Interior Secretary, I posted a diary questioning her qualifications and her commitment to preserving public lands. Seemingly everyone else on this site and the Left bent over backwards to praise her nomination because, I guess, working for REI makes you a conservationist.
Well, yesterday, Jewell had her hearing before a senate committe, and it looks like I was right. A few choice quotes to show that she will, as I predicted, continue Ken Salazar's policies:
“Leaning into oil and gas development is an important part of the mission of the Bureau of Land Management and also of the Department of Interior,” Ms. Jewell said.
...
She said she supported Mr. Obama’s so-called all-of-the-above energy strategy, including increased production of oil and gas as well as renewable energy on public lands. NY Times
The worst stuff is below the mating orange snakes.
She emphasized her resource development bona fides: Jewell has a mechanical engineering degree and worked for Mobil Oil, now Exxon Mobil, in Oklahoma and Colorado for four years after college. She told the senators Thursday that she worked on elements of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline and was involved with the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of a well.
...
Jewell said she is in favor of carefully exploring for oil in the Arctic waters off Alaska. She also said she supports efforts to find out how much oil could be in the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast, with the possibility of allowing Atlantic offshore drilling down the road. McClatchy
And the kicker (also from McClatchy):
At least one of the Republican senators, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, was impressed by her background in oil and gas and commercial banking. “How did you get appointed by this administration?” he asked. “It sounds like someone a Republican president would appoint.”
I couldn't have said it better myself, Senator Alexander.