As most readers of MadOgre.com know, I am not a fan of Ken Salazar. Ken serves under President Obama as the Secretary of the Interior. This fact alone marks him as one that should not be trusted. But now he has taken things a step further and has thumbed his nose at the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
Michelle Malkin has the story about it.
The story that really isnt getting out however is even more infuriating. Out here in the Uintah Basin, the Department of the Interior held an auction for 77 oil drilling leases. The bids were won. The payments were made. But Ken Salazar hasn’t released the permits for drilling. This is a game that the Department of the Interior has been playing for decades and decades, and Ken Salazar has basically crushed it, kept the money, and refuses to release those permits. Some companies were not overly effected. But others were crushed. The results were some company failures and a lot of companies moving drilling operations to North Dakota. The direct economic impact to my little corner of the planet was that we saw a Job Loss of 3,000 workers.
That’s not 3,000 jobs in the country… or in the state… That was 3,000 jobs here in this local area. Think about that. We had homes that went vacant all around town. Foreclosures. Repossessions. Trickle down job losses, deep cuts across the board… financial stresses on families. It ruined lives here. It kicked my own personal economy below the belt, because all the sudden my best customers were unemployed or had moved away. All because of Salazar.
This was devastating to the areas economy. One could see this as an Administration’s punishment on Utah. One could also see this as the work of a bitter, spiteful, and completely unlikable man from Colorado who has a grudge.
Not only is Ken Salazar immensely unlikeable, the man wears a Cowboy Hat and a String Tie. No one wears that anymore. That look went out with the TV show “Dallas”. Get Rid of Salazar!
What a disappointment. He was a decent Colorado Attorney General. Exception; bent the concealed carry law on behalf of the Regents at CU. Ran a good campaign for Senator against a GOP candidate with “baggage”. Got in the Cabinet and his true colors came out. I doubt any rural or agriculture Democrat will ever support him again.
As you well know, the Green River drainage has a lot of untapped energy that is staying locked up. In Moffat County there are scores oil wells drilled in the 40’s and 50’s that are capped off and have never been pumped.
The social costs of unemployment and small business failures this clowns job loss policies are sickening.
Watch him go after water rights next.
No, he’s going after Utah’s water. Big pipeline from Flaming Gorge into Denver. This is such a drastically bad idea that I start foaming at the mouth when I talk about it. The Gorge will end up being drained. All the best fishing spots will be ruined. The majesty of the whole place, ruined. For what? So some politicians can slap eachother on the backs. I’m not an Eco-Warrior type. I am not a tree hugger. But this is different. See, the energy companies don’t rape the land like the Enviro Wackos say… I know this first hand. But tapping a reservoir to feed a population it was never designed to handle? That’s logistically a dead end for us here in the Basin. The Green River will suffer. The power generation will suffer. The people who use the water for sport and recreation will suffer. Red Canyon Lodge and that other joint up there will suffer. And that means jobs. Not to mention drying out a section of the Uintah Basin and turning it back into desert. Bah!
Well, as they say on the Western Slope, Goddamndenverwaterboard is one word.