Departing Interior Boss Failed to Satisfy Industry Groups

As oil spewed from the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar pledged to keep a “boot on the neck” of BP Plc to get it to plug the leak and clean the mess. Then he halted new deepwater drilling.

Environmental advocates cheered those actions. Over the next two years, Salazar took a more conciliatory approach with the energy industry, lifting the ban in the Gulf a few months later, agreeing to allow exploration in the Arctic and setting a plan for offshore production through 2017. By the time Salazar said yesterday that he will leave President Barack Obama’s cabinet, environmentalists were disappointed by those actions while the industry was heartened.