A tipster sends word that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has tapped an oil company executive for a senior position at his department.
The appointee, Sylvia Baca, comes from the oil company BP to be deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management.
Now, Baca is not a lobbyist. Her job at BP focused on do-gooder corporate programs like health, safety and the environment. And she's clearly qualified for the job: Baca once held virtually the same post in the Clinton administration.
Still, as a frustrated K Streeter notes to me, there's something strange about seeing an oil company executive go into Obama's Interior Department while, say, Tom Malinowski can't get a job at the State Department because he has lobbied on human rights issues. And I'm told that equivalent figures at environmental nonprofits were disqualified from the Interior post that went to Baca.
--Michael Crowley