Salazar to enviros: Give Obama credit on energy

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday that environmental groups should give President Obama good grades on clean energy development, comments that come amid political discontent among some activists with the White House’s green record.

“I think when the environmental community looks at what it is that we have done to transform the energy reality and energy future of the United States, I think they ought to say we have done a pretty good job,” Salazar said at a briefing hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.

{mosads}Environmental groups that greeted Obama’s 2008 election with joy — and huge expectations — have had a mix of victories and defeats over the last three years.

Climate change and energy legislation collapsed in the Senate last year, and some greens say the White House didn’t put enough political muscle behind the bill.

More recently, green groups were bitterly disappointed when Obama scuttled upcoming smog regulations, and environmentalists are also fearful that the administration will approve a major oil sands pipeline from Canada.

But Salazar pointed to a number of accomplishments, such as increased auto mileage standards that are slated to ultimately reduce oil use by billions of barrels, and Interior’s own energy programs, which have included approvals of renewable power projects on public lands.

“I think the environmental community knows the battle that the president waged to try and move forward with energy legislation in the first part of the administration, and I think that they recognize as well that he has tried to put a new framework in place on energy for the country,” Salazar said. “It is like moving the Titanic. But notwithstanding that, I think that we have made a lot of progress.”