WASHINGTON – On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will appear before the House Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to defend his department’s inaction on offshore permits. In addition, Secretary Salazar will be making the case for a $358 million budget, fifty percent more than was allocated in fiscal year 2010. In anticipation of these hearings, Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, issued the following statement:
