Obama Taps Salazar To Oversee Extraction Of US Resources
By KUNA
President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced that US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will be the senior individual responsible for oversight of U.S. implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which regulates extraction of US natural resources, including oil.
As part of the United States Open Government National Action Plan released in September, the President announced that the United States, a longtime champion of EITI, would itself implement EITI in order to ensure that taxpayers receive “every dollar due for extraction of US natural resources,” the White House announcement said.
Salazar and his staff will work with industry and civil society to develop “a sensible plan to disclose relevant information about revenues from oil, gas and mining assets, and to enhance the accountability and transparency of our revenue collection efforts,” the statement said.
“Under Secretary Salazar’s leadership, the Department of Interior has a strong record of partnering with industry and citizens to make important strides in reforming the management of our natural resources, and EITI is just the latest in a long series of steps designed to make the US government more open and more accountable to the American people,” it said.
