"Ken Salazar promised as the interior secretary to strike a better balance between the need for oil and gas development and the need to protect public lands in the Rocky Mountain West. In the Bush years, it was all about the drilling. The administration aggressively leased out millions of acres of public land and issued more than 50,000 drilling permits, in many cases risking wildlife habitat and ignoring legally mandated environmental reviews.

Mr. Salazar, who last year rescinded some potentially destructive leases in Utah, has taken another important step. At a news conference last week, he announced that the Bureau of Land Management — the agency that manages the bulk of the public lands — would now conduct more rigorous reviews of proposed leases, increase its consultation with other public agencies charged with protecting the environment and allow for more input from the public on future drilling decisions.

The bureau, he declared bluntly, would no longer be a “candy store” for an oil and gas industry that (mixing his metaphors) had been allowed to act like “kings of the world” during the Bush years."

Get the Story:
Editorial: No More ‘Candy Store’ (The New York Times 1/12)

Relevant Documents:
Press Release | Secretarial Order | Fact Sheet | Comparison of Changes

Related Stories:
Interior plans stricter process for oil and gas leases (1/7)