Obama: “I want an Interior Department that very frankly cleans up its act”

These were president-elect Obama’s words on announcing Senator Ken Salazar as the next Interior Secretary. I was a bit taken back by the frankness of his remarks but approvingly so. But will another politician such as Salazar fight the good fight for effectiveness in the name of the American taxpayer? Mr. Obama’s stated first priority of his administration is for better energy policy and that sits squarely in the hands of the Interior Sectretary. I don’t know Senator Salazar’s background other than what has been written about his efforts to curtail oil shale development but support offshore drilling.

But given the mission of Interior and in particular the USGS, we will see better management at Survey? Will the new GIO for Interior drive geospatial technology to be more consolidated between the other agencies like BLM, MMS, BIA and the others in to a more unified geospatial data model ala the efforts of the FGDC and the mission Geospatial Line of Business (GLoB)? Will Salazar keep a GIO in place?

I’m sure Obama was referring to some of the mismanagement issues of the MMS but what do you think he meant? I’d like to hear your opinion on what’s next for Interior. We’ve reported on some of the recent developments at the USGS, like the recently updated website of the National Map. What say you on how the new Interior Sectretary can "clean up the act" of the department?