01/29/09 Future of the Interior Part 2

Future of the Interior Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Ken Salazar is the new Secretary of the Department of the Interior and in a conference call last week with Interior employees he set down some ground rules for building the next 4 years. SALAZAR: We and those who work in this Department will make sure that we follow the high ethical standards that President Obama outlined in his first press conference at the White House. We will follow the law. Hold people accountable. We will expect to be held accountable and we will not tolerate the types of lapses that distract and detract from good honest service to the American people that this department does every day. Salazar said that there is immediacy in getting right to work. SALAZAR: President Obama has given us work to do and to do it right away. In the coming weeks the new Administration will be creating with Congress a new strong economic recovery plan that helps create jobs, to build our clean energy economy for the future and to remake America. I work on that plan and I can tell you the Department of the Interior will be an essential part of that economic recovery program. Looking into the future Salazar says the economic package will help realize some dreams. SALAZAR: So as that takes formation it's going to give us all a great opportunity to do those things that people have dreamt about but simply have not been able to do over many, many decades. For example when we thing about the centennial of the National Parks system in the year 2016, I want our National Parks systems and treasured landscapes to be the best that they have ever been and this economics stimulus package will help us move in that direction in a very important way. Building a renewable energy future is also a big part of that plan according to Salazar. SALAZAR: This stimulus package as well will move us forward into this new energy frontier. You have seen some of what the Congress has already done and its reaction to the framework that we are working on but whether we are talking about the siting of renewable energy facilities such as solar, geothermal or wind or the transmission lines across our public lands that will bring that energy to the places its going to be used, there will be significant investments in much of that as we move forward with this economic recovery program. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.