Obama nominates REI's chief executive Sally Jewell.
In 2011 Jewell introduced Obama at the White House conference on “America’s Great Outdoor Initiative,” noting that the $289 billion outdoor-recreation industry supports 6.5 million jobs....
Jewell has pushed for land conservation in Washington state, where she lives, as well as nationally. She is a founding board member of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, which focuses on a stretch of land from Puget Sound across the Cascades, and helped lay out a plan for the National Park Service as a commissioner on the “National Parks Second Century Commission.”...
National Park Conservation Association President Tom Kiernan, on whose board Jewell sits, noted that she focused on how to broaden the national park system’s appeal as head of the “Connecting People and Parks Subcommittee” during its planning process. He described her overall approach as being “about connecting people and the out of doors, to the benefit of both.”
Jewell was also an engineer for Mobil Oil:
“Her experience as a petroleum engineer and business leader will bring a unique perspective to an office that is key to our nation’s energy portfolio,” said [Tim Wigley, president of the Western Energy Alliance, which represents independent oil and gas producers in the West]. “We hope to see a better balance of productive development on non-park, non-wilderness public lands that enhances the wealth of America and creates jobs while protecting the environment.”
From what I'm reading at the link, this is a nice change from the usual career politician who cares about environmentalism.
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58 comments:
Lady parts?
She's the token slut, and she's a big Barry donor?
Agreed. First truly qualified cabinet member I've seen in a long time. This has always seemed idiotic to me where when it comes to the highest post in an organization it's often the person in the organization that understands the work least. It's especially true of government. See "Barack Obama".
I think she can't be worse than Salazar. She understand the oil industry. Understands banking, investments, land use and valuation.
She knows how to market the parks.
so what if she has hugged a few trees? She's made payroll and isn't a career political...
You weren't going to get better from Obama. At least she isn't say Granholm, or Gregoire
I go to the national parks to escape vibrant America and now the liberals want to connect it to the parks? There's no escape from liberal destruction.
Obama was in a "bind-er" and needed a woman for his cabinet. Yet she has a very appealing resume for the appointment.
A local REI just installed solar carports in its parking lot.
Nuse thanked the board for its support as well as the state legislators who created solar tax incentives. “If it wasn’t for the state incentives, programs like this would not be feasible,” he said.
We'll see on the prudence of both decisions.
We elected a President with an empty CV.
She has experience as a petroleum engineer, and she's the chief at REI. I'm thinking this is an interesting choice.
I just did a Google image search for Ms. Jewell and she appears to be appropriately outdoorsy.
If she's treated like Michele Flournoy, this is the first and last we'll ever hear of her.
I'm betting she's for show, not for go, but, who knows, she may be able to teach Choomie how to skoot sheet.
Jewell should have smooth sailing. Lady is qualified. But she will be questioned with great interest about the extent she is willing to open up Fed lands to oil and gas drilling to aid in America's economic recovery. And hopefully get us to where 5 dollar plus gasoline and commensurate 30% inflation in consumer goods - is not our future.
She HAS to be better than that lawyer Salazar.
I think the most important issue is that she ought, because of her oil and commerical land banking experience, to understand leasing of mineral rights, the permiting process and what uncertainity does to businesses in the oil business.
She also may be a counterweight to The Greens and Obama who keep wanting to add to the inventory of protected lands without understanding there are O&M costs for that. Better to spend Interior budget on the assets you have. e.g. keeping up the existing parks, and not letting them slide...
I agree the lack of "lawyer" in a resume is huge for me too.
She's from a mega corporate environment. I thought the left hated corporations?
She appears to know the difference between conservation and preservation.
The problem with all these people though is political ambition. That is a poisonous addiction even for good people. I like people who say: OK, I'll do the job for X years and then I'm out of politics. It changes everything they do. Are there such people, or are they too hard to manipulate to hire for political jobs.
“We hope to see a better balance of productive development on non-park, non-wilderness public lands..."
Non-wilderness?
So - lets drill for oil in the city or perhaps in the suburbs?
No one can be as bad as Salazar, the all hat no cattle pussy first interior appointment by Obamessiah.
she probably has less time feeding at the government trough than anyone in the administration. she probably has more private sector experience than the rest of the administration combined. so it was probably the lady parts.
I don't think REI is megacorporate in the same way that term is usually used.
They're structured more as a mega-co-op, with a lot of rebates given to members. Different kind of culture altogether in general as well.
AprilApple said...
Non-wilderness?
So - lets drill for oil in the city or perhaps in the suburbs
April,
I suspect you are an Easterner. The DoI controls 12% of the land in the country and 36% of the mineral rights in the country. Out West, the % is higher. maybe 50% overall. Examples:
- more than 70% of the entire states of NV and UT are Federal Lands under either BLM or FS.
- 50% of Oregon
- 35% of California
Wilderness means no roads, no gas powered vehicles, basicly nothing but mules and trails.
Non wildernes can be pretty rugged, a far cry from suburbs...
Can't figure out what's going on here.
This does not fit the Zero MO at all.
Advice: Make no conclusions, let's see what she DOES.
Paddy O has it right. I'm a member, but not a believer. And, they are certainly not a co-op for the less well off.
Cheers
Like all appointments Obama makes, this looks largely political to me. I have no idea what Sally Jewell's actual qualification are for the post, but I suspect they are minimal. She sounds more green than development and no doubt she will carry the 'let them eat gruel' policy of the left into the job.
I'm a member at REI. I don't recall any "rebates".
REI is a giant seller of outdoor recreational gear and clothing.
Not good or bad.. but very large.
$289 billion large. I thought the left hated that?
If she was what some of you dreamers wish she were, she wouldn't be working for Obama.
just a reminder...
Looks like an excellent choice.
Interesting how Salazar's "promoting renewable energy on public land" priority turns into Babbit's "one to one" in Obama's second term.
Not that anyone would say that renewable energy is failure. Can't say that. Let's just talk about something else now.
Why yes!
The video at that link is well worth watching, by the way, very informational and objective.
"I'm a member at REI. I don't recall any "rebates"."
Methinks you've missed out on one of the best parts!
I must be missing out. I don't have an REI visa.
I'm not sure how that makes REI less corporate?
I wonder if REI rebates are like Costco rebates? Costco rebates are laughably small. 12 bucks a year!
AprilApple, the dividend is for all members, based on purchases however they purchase.
The REI Visa just extends this further.
Last year, I got a pair of Vibrams for free combining a sale and my dividend.
I don't expect miracles, but it's a good thing the administration is adding someone whose job performance was once judged by profit and loss. The number of current administration members with previous business experience in much lower than previous Democratic administrations.
I had no idea LA was a giant ball of oil. Thanks for the link, Paddy O.
I have some questions. Where are the hidden refineries? I wonder how much oil sits under oh say - Sean Penn's mansion? Wait - we run on oil? It's OK to drill in LA, but not in the middle of no-where?
She sounds decent...but, as has been said, not like a usual Barry choice, so there has to be something under the surface.
Barry don't choose non-radicals. Barry has an agenda.
Evidently, no particular qualifications are required to be President or SecDef, why would Sec. of the Interior require any?
Although it would probably be a good guess that she is a bundler or contributor to The Great One.
Me parece una idea muy buena.
REI is a great place for your wife to by overpriced sandals.
But I like the place.
On the face of it she seems to be a good choice.
Wheres the quid pro quo?
She is a great choice in my opinion. 1. She comes from the private sector. 2. She sells stuff to people who use it in the outdoors or who aspire to. 3. She recognizes that people who buy this equipment and who actually use it are people who respect the wilderness but do not see it as the private enclave of environmentalists working for non-profits. 4. She understands that the oil companies spend a lot of money to ensure that their drilling and conveyance techniques are as safe as possible and that they are anything but cavalier about the environment.
I expect the left will hate her for the reasons I support her.
Everyone here is falling for it.
Has one single pick of Obama's cabinet or admin spots ever NOT been political? I see a lot of commenters here who seem to want to believe that this pick based on what little we know, and not on what we don't know.
I'm holding out for more information. Everything this guy does has a political angle.
She may be a greenie, and left wing, but at least she knows the damned subject. I would expect Obama to choose someone more like Al Gore, or that crying Indian along the highway.
Did he know Kia - the hatchet surfer dude was out of work?
Seriously though, people who don't know anything but have a political leaning are worse in these positions, because their bag of ideas don't just encompass the the wrong headed ideologically, they also include those ideas that smarter people already know are ridiculous. It's not like the alternative was him nominating some wildcatter.
I expect the left will hate her for the reasons I support her.
The Sierra Club seems to like her. There is your barometer.
She does a couple of things. One is cater to the conservationist crowd, not the EPA/Envirokook crowd. They are already howling at the moon for blood on why Urkel chose her. Secondly, she was an engineer at Mobile, that means she has an in with Big Oil on some level and Urkel will use that through her to get to them. Thirdly, she's a woman, and it will take the edge off of his cabinet being largely old white men.
I own stock in Exxon-Mobile, so this is good news to me. The good thing about crony capitalism is you don't have to guess who the winners are going to be. You just have to look and see who is sitting in Obama's lap. I have made back almost all the money I lost in the stock market crash by investing in General Electric, Duke Energy, and Bank of America.
His worst choice, until Hagel, was Big Sis! She had been a U.S.Attorney, Attorney General and Governor of Arizona! NO military, law enforcement or emergency preparedness experience that I could find!
As I recall, she was the first governor to endorse Barry the Obama before the primaries!
It'll be good for business.
It'll be good for business.
Garage: Didn't see that, thanks. Sierra Club is a great organization that often goes off the rails. I have been a member for forty years. I would no more follow their political suggestions than I would that of the NRA but like the NRA they are willing to fight for what they believe and I respect that. In both organizations.
It seems to me that the Sierra Club and the NRA should have little to disagree about based on what their core motivations are. Yet the people who happen to populate those organizations probably disagree about most everything.
She's probably more qualified to be head of the Department of Interior than Obama was to be president.
Seems she would be as interested in people being able to use and enjoy the wilderness as in preserving it. This would be more inline with many of the hunting/fishing/camping promoting organizations that have contributed greatly to the preservation of our wild lands.
She is a conservationist. That means she is a conservative.
The rub is that Obama's New Speak has declared that ALL combustion of carbon based fuels to be MASSIVE POLLUTION of the Green Earth that belongs to the goddess gaia.
Now how the heck can a conservative conserve gaia's Green Earth with that rule in place?
But do we really need to "broaden" the National Park system? Doesn't the federal government own enough land? Interior seems to exhibit almost the same sort of mindset as a hoarder when it comes to land. If it looks pretty, we have to take it. Does America have larger problems right now? Don't we have enough? Could the states possibly manage some of these lands more efficiently than the federal government?
After Bruce Babbitt, anybody and everybody is qualified to be SecInt.
traditionalguy said...
She is a conservationist. That means she is a conservative.
I certainly hope that you had you tongue firmly planted in your cheek!
She's not a conservationist.
If she were, she wouldn't be doing Obama's bidding.
Appears she's a global warmer--and game for confiscating private and State land for the Federal government.
More bad news--Not all "big oil" insiders are totally down with the cause. Plenty of moonbats hired to fill poisitions based education/expertise.
No offense against Jewell, but what ever happened to Julia?
She studied enviro-feminist literature and political economy at Obama State University, worked for two years at the Program for America as budget director, found a man to sire her child and has been since leading the re-employment program at Solyndra.
Doesn't she get an appointment?
Maybe just an invite to the White House Stevie Wonder bash or something?
"...Seattle-based REI. The trendy Pacific Northwest outdoor equipment retailer's progressive CEO and Democratic campaign donor, Sally Jewell, appeared with President Obama in 2009 to tout White House health care reform initiatives. Two years later, REI snagged a waiver to protect the health benefits of a whopping 1,180 workers from the very tentacles of the big government bureaucrats Jewell embraced at Obama's roundtable."
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/michelle-malkin/2011/05/18/dude-wheres-my-obamacare-waiver
Okay, so it's Malkin: make of it what you will.
I don't even know why you would even pose the question. A CEO who ran a large organization vs. say a senator or politician who has zero experience running a large organization?
She may be the most qualified nominee so far. No, I'll go all in. She IS the most qualified nominee so far.
Neither Kerry or Hagel have done anything of accomplishment to warrant running huge government agencies. Brennan has other issues.
She should make everyone happy. She won a "Rachel Carson" award, named after someone who killed millions in the name of the environment.
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