Government Executives’ Katherine McIntire Peters picks up on the fact that the same day Barack Obama pledged to cap carbon emissions, Interior Sec. Ken Salazar announced 38 sites where the federal government will lease land for oil and natural gas drilling. This development of fossil fuels is managed by Interior’s Bureau of Land Management. Salazar admitted that the timing of the announcement was meant to reassure oil and natural gas companies that the Obama administration is still committed to traditional energy sources.

Even absent the climate change debate, the announcement of lease sales usually draw the ire of environmentalists — “In recent years between 40 percent and 50 percent of lease sales have been sidelined by costly lawsuits,” Peters reports.

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