El Phoenix Sun

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar this afternoon announced the administration’s intention to fight to keep a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in place, despite a federal judge’s ruling today that placed an injunction on the measure.

In a statement released today, Salazar defended the moratorium as “the right decision.”

“The moratorium is needed to protect the communities and the environment of the Gulf Coast,” said Salazar, “and [the Department of Justice] is therefore appealing today’s court ruling.

The statement continued:

We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP’s well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling. That evidence mounts as BP continues to be unable to stop its blowout, notwithstanding the huge efforts and help from the federal scientific team and most major oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico. The evidence also continues to mount that industry needs to raise the bar on blowout prevention, containment, and response planning before deepwater drilling should continue. Based on this ever-growing evidence, I will issue a new order in the coming days that eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate, and within our authorities.

With all eco-eyes focused on the action (or, more properly, inaction) on a climate bill, other critical components of a clean energy economy can be overlooked. That was the case on Monday as the dominant news story concerned speculation about whether Republican members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Public Works would show up for Tuesday’s climate bill markup session (they didn’t).

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Environmentalists concerned about potential damage to desert ecosystems, electric utilities wanting to expand into the growing solar energy market, and anyone else for that matter, have been given until September 14 to tell the government their concerns about a plan to open some 670,000 acres of federal land to development for large-scale solar power facilities. The change adds 45 days to the original public comment period.

In announcing the change, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, explained:

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